For You I Leave My Future Behind
by PattiCobain
Summary: Because of the experiment of two Unspeakables, twenty seven year old Auror Harry Potter ends up in the year 1977. He is given the chance to do it all over, but this time different and more prepared. His biggest challenge is though, not to interfere too much, so he won't destroy the world while trying to save it. He also might have found his soulmate, but do they stand a chance?
1. Never Trust An Unspeakable

Never Trust An Unspeakable

Twenty seven year old Auror Harry Potter was sitting at his desk in the Auror Department and was writing his latest report of the capture of Rabastan Lestrange, they had finally found one of the last Death Eaters since the day Voldemort died. Thinking about what he could write, reports had never been his thing, he scratched the back of his head. Harry Potter had changed in the last nine years, nearly nothing reminded of the scrawny young man with the round glasses who had saved the world of Voldemort.

Harry had grown quite a bit after the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders, years of playing Quidditch and the training puls the work as an Auror had left him with a lean, muscular body and here and there some extra scars. The only thing that hadn't changed were his round glasses and the emerald green eyes, his hair was now nearly shoulder length, but still messy as always, they wouldn't even stay in the bun or ponytail he had to wear on the job. When people asked, he said he simply liked his hair this way, but only his close friends knew that this was one way to honour his godfather and father, it was messy like the one of his father and long like the hair of Sirius.

When he finished his report he'd let his eyes wander around his cubical, photos of his friends and family were pinned to the walls. There were Ron and Hermione at their wedding and then when their daughter Rose was born, of course there was a big Weasley family picture with all children and grandchildren and also with him. There was a photo of Ginny at her first match with the Holyhead Harpies, back then they had still been a couple, the two of them had ended their relationship a few months after the picture had been taken. They just drifted apart but were still friends, a month ago she had married Dean Thomas, there was also a picture of that wedding. Next to them one could watch his beloved nine year old godson Teddy Lupin grow up, as there were many pictures of him, at least one for each year.

Harry was happy with his life the way it was now, a few years after defeating Voldemort people of course still recognized him, but mostly things had quiet down for him. Here with the Aurors he wasn't the Boy Who Lived or the Chosen One he was simply Harry Potter an excellent young Auror nobody cared about more than necessary. And he didn't want it to be any other way, even though he would like to find a woman to settle down with, after Ginny he only had a few relationships but none lasted long.

"Hey Harry!" the young Auror was pulled out of his thoughts by his friend and fellow Auror Neville Longbottom.

"Hi Neville, what can I do for you?" he asked and pushed his glasses further up while giving his friend a small smile.

"Not much, Severin asked me to tell you to meet him in the Department of Mysteries, he wants you to help him with something." the blonde man answered, while Harry raised an eyebrow. He knew Paul Severin he was one of the most experienced Unspeakables and Harry had helped him on his researches once or twice as Severin was extremely interested in the Limbo Harry had been in when he had 'died'.

"Me really?" he asked a little confused.

"As far as I know, there is no other Harry Potter working in the Ministry." Neville answered and Harry stood up without answering.

"Okay, but you'll have to give my report to Williamson." he said and handed the report to Neville who tipped a finger to his head before leaving.

"And tell him I won't rewrite it!" he called after his friend, who raised his hand to show him he had heard what he said.

"Will do." Neville said over his shoulder before disappearing into the crowed of people on the other end of the corridor, while Harry left for the elevators.

As he arrived in the Department of Mysteries he walked to the Entrance Chamber, he still remembered the night he fell for Voldemort's trap, he was almost sure that if he would turn around he would see the scared but determined faces of his friends. Finally the doors had stopped spinning.

"Time Chamber." he said out loud and a door to his left opened, he walked towards it and inside the room. It still looked like the last time he had been in there, expect there were no Death Eaters and there wasn't a single Time Turner left.

"Severin?" Harry asked loud, but got no answer. Where was that old bloke? Because he had forgotten where Severin's office was he turned to try out one of the doors he now knew lead to the offices of the people working here. Harry was about to open one door when he noticed a new door on the other side of the room.

It sure as hell hadn't been there before had it? Somehow Harry felt drawn towards the door and walked closer, it seemed like something behind this door was calling him. A small voice in his head, that sounded a lot like Hermione, as well as his Auror instincts told him to get his arse out of there, but the infamous Potter curiosity was too strong. It was almost like he was in trance.

'This could be your end you know that? In this damn Department everything could kill you one way or another! You can't leave everyone behind!' Harry thought as he raised his hand to open the door. Then another thought crossed his mind and the voice of his old mentor echoed through his mind.

'After all, to the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure.' with that Harry opened the door, instantly he was pulled inside into pure light and while he heard the door close behind him, he lost his consciousness.

* * *

Harry regained his consciousness real quick as he fell flat on his face on cold stone floor.

"Merlin's beard it worked, it really worked!" a male voice said and Harry quickly jumped up and pulled his wand. In front of him stood an elder wizard, who raised his hands showing him he was unarmed and smiled even though a wand was pointed to his face.

"Who are you and what do you mean?" Harry asked, now that he was free of the enchantment of that cursed door he was able to think clearly, what the hell had he done?

"My name is Albert Chronos, Unspeakable in the Chamber of Time, in which we are at the moment, but it is different from the one you know Harry Potter. It's August 20 1977." the wizard said and for a split second Harry was so shocked that he lowered his wand for a moment, but then raised it once more.

"You're lying, what the hell have you done to me?" Harry asked his voice cold and angry. What the hell was going on? Where was Severin? What had that old bugger done?

"I'm not lying, here," he slowly pulled out a newspaper, so Harry could watch his movements and see that he wasn't going to draw a wand. "See for yourself." Harry's eyes darted down for a second so that he could see the date on the paper which turned out to be the Daily Prophet. _August 20 1977_.

"That's no proof for what you say, everyone could fake this." Harry answered with his wand still raised.

"Turn around, we still have the Time Turners." Chronos answered and pointed towards his left, a short turn of Harry's head told him he was right, there was the shelf of Time Turners he watched being destroyed beyond repair.

"I won't repeat myself again, explain to me what you did." Harry grumbled angrily, he was tired of all of this, what was going on? Surely he couldn't have travelled in time!

"I gladly will. You see, four years ago, my future colleague Paul Severin found a hole in time, he send a message through which landed here, we have been in contact since then, improving this hole in time together, starting one of, if not _the_ biggest experiment in the history of Magic. And we succeeded! After years of work we were sure one would survive the time travel so we needed a powerful test subject and my colleague suggested you. You, the wizard who fought one of the Darkest Wizards in time and it worked, you are here!" Chronos said sounding like he had saved the entire world, but Harry's hand only grabbed onto his wand tighter.

"You fucking used me like a guinea pig! What if I didn't want to travel in time?" Harry shouted, "I was happy with my life, I finally had a peaceful life and you think you have the right to send me back into a time of war?!"

"Don't you understand what we did-"

"Yes I understand, you meddled with something no one has the right meddling with! Every child knows not to mess with time, I know of nearly everything that is about to happen for the next thirty years!"

"Of course, that was the plan! You can't change the future completely, but you can change a few things so there is a different and better outcome for you in the end! Maybe you can save a life or two! What about Fred Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks or Sirius Black?"

"H-how-?" Harry was barely able to speak, again seeing the dead bodies of every friend they had lost in the war.

"You're not the only one who knows what is going to happen in the future, Severin told me and we choose you to give you a chance of living another life, of being able to change things, not all of them, but some!"

"You're mad...you are completely mad." Harry muttered "I don't want to do this, I will go back into my time!" Chronos almost manic smile vanished.

"I'm sorry, you can't."

"What? Of course I can! I will turn around and-" Harry did turn around while he was talking and then noticed that behind him was a pile of shattered wood, that looked a lot like it could have been a door once.

"No...no." he mumbled and fell to his knees, everything and everyone he knew, his whole life was gone, most of the people he loved hadn't even been born yet. "Why? Why did you do this to me? You took everything from me that mattered to me!" he shouted, Hermione, Ron, the Weasley family, Teddy, to him they were all gone.

"We thought it was a great chance for you."

"Like hell you were! You were only thinking about your experiment, one every other human being had the respect not to mess with, but you thought you could, you put yourself above everyone else playing god!" Harry shouted again at this man in rage.

"You might be right, but we won't be able to change that now. There is no turning back," he stopped for a moment then continued. "If it's going to help you, you still exist in your time. It's like a copy of you was sent here, the same you is back there, nobody will notice anything."

"Great..." Harry mumbled sarcastically, though he really was relieved to hear that, at least he didn't vanish for the others without saying goodbye.

"So how am I supposed to live in this time? In three years there is going to be another me." Harry said sounding resigned, like he came to understand there was no going back.

"I already prepared everything, you are Harrison Potter, twenty seven, son of Charlus and Dorea Potter. You had a normal life went to Hogwarts, house Gryffindor, and then later became an Auror, but you left due to becoming the new DADA Professor for this year. I already spoke with Dumbledore, he is the only one beside me who knows who you really are, though I lied to him and told him you volunteered for this time travel.

I also alternated the memory of most Professors in Hogwarts and the people working in the Ministry who would have been in contact with you. Also the Potters know about you."

"How were you able to do that?" he asked and Chronos shrugged his shoulders.

"People have always underestimated the power of the Unspeakables, or they don't know how powerful we really are and what we can really do." he answered.

"Anything else." Harry asked, his voice now even colder, as a kind of hate for this man was growing inside of him.

"If you don't want to destroy this and your time, you better don't change too much. We thought of you as a guide for your younger self." Harry stood up and faced him, then he punched Chronos in the face with all the strengh he had, knocking the wizard unconscious.

"Thanks for the advice arsehole!" Harry said while moving his fingers as the punch had also been quite hurtful for him. Thanks to those two mad man he now had to do everything again, just because they thought they stood above every law. Harry stared at a Mirror that hung in the Chamber of Time.

Now he wasn't Harry but Harrison Potter, his eyes caught the scar on his forehead, in some years he would need to explain why he had the exact very same scar as Harry Potter the Boy Who Lived. If he had to do this, he would do it right. He would not be Harry Potter. He raised his wand to his face and winced in pain when he started to cut the skin over his scar and part of his right face. When he was finished and had healed the wounds, one couldn't make out the original scar, it actually looked like he had been attacked by a werewolf or an other clawed creature.

Satisfied with his work he threw one last hate filled look at the still unconscious Chronos, hoping to never see him again Harry left the Chamber of Time. He only had one way to go, the only other person who knew of him and could help him, Albus Dumbledore. Harry had to admit he was a bit excited to meet his old mentor in person again. With that thought he also left the Department of Mysteries and the Ministry, no one took notice of him as he was just another wizard.

Not even one of them knew that he would save them all in the future. Again.

* * *

 **So this Idea was stuck in my head for months and finally I gave in and wrote it down, even though I know I haven't finished my other story, with similar content. But this time its Harry travelling in time ;)**

 **I try to not make it just another Harry in the past story, I really hope I can do this, so please tell me what you think of this chapter and story so far. :)**

 **Also if you want to know how I imagine Harry, then please look at blvnk-art at tumblr or deviantart, her sketches of Harry are simply amazing! That's exactly how I imagine him but now he face is more scarred to hide his original scar.**

 **Also if you don't know, Chronos was the God of Time, I thought that was quite fitting for my mad Unspeakable.**

 **I'm not entirely sure of how things will go exactly, for example with whom Harry will end up in this time, it's most likely going to be Minerva or an OC, definitely NOT his mother!**

 **Please leave me a review, constructive criticism is welcomed too :)**

 **Patti**


	2. Hogwarts

Hogwarts

When Harry arrived in Hogsmeade he couldn't help but smile a bit, the small village hadn't changed much, one or two houses didn't look as old as in his time, and some houses hadn't been even built yet. He slowly walked up to the gates of the castle, in not even two week the students would arrive here, under them his parents and their friends. Harry had to admit he was quite nervous about meeting them, with them not knowing he was their son.

"I have an appointment with Albus Dumbledore." Harry said to the gate, as he had no bad intentions the gate swung open and let him pass. Thoughts about his own school years started to play around in his head, all the times he, Ron and Hermione had visited Hagrid, the hours spend under the big beech tree by the lake, or all the small and bigger adventures they had mastered together. It was also nice to be back in the castle without seeing the portraits of the students and Order Members who had died. Finally he arrived in front of the Gargoyle that guarded the Headmasters office.

"I have to talk with the Headmaster, can I pass please?" he asked and the stone figure moved and revealed the staircase that lead up to the Headmaster Office, Harry raised his hand to knock, but the door swung open before he could do so.

"Welcome Harry." the very much alive headmaster said and Harry walked inside finally seeing his old mentor again in person. Beside the fact that there were a fewer wrinkles on his face and his beard and hair were shorter then when he had first saw the headmaster.

"Hello Alb- Professor Dumbledore." Harry said but old Wizard raised his hand.

"Please, I haven't been your headmaster in years, Albus is fine, beside, we are going to be colleagues." Harry smiled, it was good to talk to his mentor again face to face, it simply wasn't the same talking to a portrait. "Please take a seat Harry." he gestured towards one of the chairs in front of his desk and Harry sat down, while Dumbledore did the same behind his desk.

"How are you?"

"No offence it's kinda great to see so many who haven't survived both wars, but I feel miserable because I was, and I have no other way to describe it, abducted from my time, my home, by two mad Unspeakables. I didn't volunteer for this, they lied to you. In my time I was finally free, no Dark Lord that wanted to kill me and now I'll have to do it again and watch how good people die." Harry said, while he spoke the smile on Dumbledore's face fell.

"I'm so sorry to hear that, nothing really justified what they did, but I assure you, you have my help in this."

"Thank you Albus, it's good to know you are with me again."

"I really don't want to rush things Harry, but as you certainly know the war with Voldemort is going on and while I believe we have a chance to defeat him, I- well from what Chronos told me you would not only make and excellent DADA Professor, but would also be an important fighter in our ranks." Dumbledore said seriously.

"You want me to join the Order?"

"It is your free choice, I won't hold it against you if you don't-"

"I will join." Harry answered with no doubt in his voice. He was trained now, he knew his way around in battle and he certainly wouldn't sit around while his parents and everyone else was fighting against Voldemort.

"I can't say I'm not glad you joined us Harry, I have no doubt you will be a great addition to the Order as well as to Hogwarts. I know it's a little short termed, but given the circumstances I will give you the curriculum for each year so you can prepare a bit for the lessons."

"Sure thanks-" in that moment the door opened and a witch looking to be in her late twenties to early thirties with black chest length hair, green eyes and dark red, flowing dress that went a little past her knees. She was a little shorter than him and the dress hugged her figure nicely and it was a good figure, a really good figure.

"Albus do you-" the witch froze when she saw Harry, he had to look twice to realize it was Professor McGonagall, though significantly older in his old time, she hadn't been ugly, but he had never dreamed she was this pretty. Harry had also never seen her with her hair down and he was far from ashamed to admit that she was simply beautiful. Even more beautiful when she blushed.

"Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't know you had another candidate for the DADA post." Minerva said and turned to leave.

"No, no we were finished Minerva, please, this is your new colleague Harrison Potter." Albus said and Harry stood up and bowed a little before he held out his hand with a small grin, which widened when his ex Professor blushed even harder.

"A pleasure to meet you and please call me Harry." he said and Minerva shook his hand.

"Minerva McGonagall Transfiguration Professor." Harry nodded.

"Looking forward to work with you." he then said and she smiled a little at him and Harry thought that she looked even more prettier when she smiled, even after the war back in his time there hadn't been many occasions he had seen her smile.

"Me too." the witch then said.

"Harry, I have given myself the freedom to have some of the house elves bring your stuff to your new Chambers, do you want me or Minerva to accomplice you?" the headmaster asked.

"I wouldn't say no to some company, Minerva?" Harry said facing the witch.

"Oh! Err...sure why not." she answered, then turned to the headmaster. "I'll come to you later because of the new books."

"Of course my dear."

When Harry turned to look at the headmaster, while he waved him goodbye, he swore the old wizard winked at him.

"So how long are you already teaching here?" Harry asked when they walked to his new chambers.

"Since nine years, I worked for the Ministry for two years before I got the offer from Headmaster Dippet." she explained.

"And why did you decide to teach?" she asked back.

"Well I needed a break from the Auror office and how could I do better than teach young minds how to defend themselves, especially in times like these." he thought for a moment "And I think my body will thank me if I don't collect more scars." he added and managed to put another smile on Minervas face.

"I remember you." McGonagall said suddenly, after a few moments of silence had passed surprising Harry a little.

"Really? I hope in a positive way." the witch laughed a little.

"Of course, we were on the Quidditch Team together, you were an excellent Seeker." she added and Harry looked at her and was again surprised by what she said. McGonagall had also played Quidditch in her Hogwarts years? Well that would at least explain her determination to beat Slytherin. Then Harry realized another mistake from Chronos and Severin, Minerva and the others might remember him but he didn't know anything about them, expect for what he knew from the future.

"Yeah, you were also an exceptional good Chaser." he answered making a guess and hoping dearly that he was right. Judging her reaction he was, as she smiled again.

"Thank you." They walked around a corner and were now in the corridor where the DADA Classroom and his office as well as his Chambers laid. "Well if you should need help with anything, just ask day or night."

"I highly doubt your husband or any of that sorts would appreciate it if I demand your help in the middle of the night." Harry said before he could stop himself, what an incredibly stupid thing to say! Why had he done that? They barely talked for a five minutes and he already managed to get them into an awkward situation. And surely she was taken, someone who was that beautiful and intelligent- wait, where did that thought come from? Harry shook his head to get rid of the thought and then notice the woman beside him was still tensed up and hadn't said anything. He had half expected one of the famous McGonagall lectures, but there was none.

"I'm sorry, that was highly inappropriate-"

"Yes it was, but as there is no such someone there won't be any trouble if you request my help." she said as they came to a halt in front of his classroom. She wasn't in a relationship? Harry couldn't help but be a bit surprised, he had at least expected some boyfriend, surely there were a dozen men trying to court her.

"I can't see why someone like you isn't being courted, but it seems like this might save us trouble should I take your offer. Well, thank you that you accompanied me here, it was great talking to you and I'm sorry for whatever nonsense I said." Harry said and sent her a smile and Minerva nodded.

"Yes it was nice, we'll see each other at dinner." she said and turned around to leave while Harry opened the door. "Oh and Harry?" Minerva had stopped mid corridor and the addressed wizard turned his head to look at her.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts."

"Thank you." he winked at her and to his surprise she only smiled in response before she turned and left, he watched her until Minerva disappeared around the corner, noticing that her backside wasn't bad either. What was going on with him? He was not even one day in the past and already trying to flirt with for his former teacher, he couldn't even explain why but he was.

Harry walked up to the Office and found a note on the desk.

 _Hello Harry,_

 _the door to your Chambers are behind the right shelf, just pull the book Hogwarts A History and say: Harrison Potter. You can change your password of course._

 _Dumbledore._

Harry walked over to the bookshelf and pulled the book partly out. "Harrison Potter." the shelf swung aside and revealed a door which he opened. He then found himself in a plain but nice living room there was a sofa and an armchair in front of a fireplace, he then walked through a door on the left which turned out to be the bedroom. Inside was a big bed, a night stand and a big wardrobe. The bathroom was also big enough for two people and all in all it was quite nice and he was sure he could feel at home here.

When he arrived at dinner that evening in the Great Hall Dumbledore stood from the round table the teachers were sitting at.

"My dear colleagues and friends, please welcome our new colleague, one or two in here should remember him, Harrison Potter" there was a round of applause and Harry noticed that next to Minerva was a free seat. Had she saved him a seat? No, it was probably just a coincides.

"Harrison, you remember Horace Slughorn, Filius Flitwick, Pomona Sprout, Peter Zettler (Divination), Bathsheda Babbling, Silvanus Kettleburn and of course Minerva McGonagall. Professor Aurora Sinistra is teaching Astronomy since two years, then we have Septima Vector as Professor for Arithmancy and finally Leonard Cooper he also starts this year as Muggle Studies Professor, he was only three years below you in Slytherin." Dumbledore ended the introduction and Harry waved at all of them. Expect for the new ones he knew everyone, his Professors hadn't changed much from now until he had went to Hogwarts apart form looking younger.

"Do you want to say something about yourself Harrison?" Harry suppressed the urge to roll his eyes at Albus.

"Hello, well many of you might remember me from my own school years here. Well after my graduation I became an Auror and worked as one until I got the letter from Albus asking if I could imagine teaching, here I am. Oh and please it's Harry." with that Harry sat down next to Minerva, who grinned slightly amused, while the rest had imagined a bit more than that. When everyone ate and chatted, Harry turned his attention to the attractive witch beside him, who leaned closer to him.

"You are not one for big words are you?" she asked in a low voice.

"That obvious? Well, to be honest no." his female colleague chuckled lightly before reaching for her goblet.

"Good that you are going to teach."

"I can't remember you being so sarcastic." she only shrugged her shoulders.

"That be only one of the things you can't remember." Harry couldn't help but laugh. Was this really Minerva McGonagall? Despite their good relationship in the future, he would've never expected her to joke around so freely. Then he wondered what had happen that she had changed so much and the Harry felt stupid for not realizing earlier. The war. The war with Voldemort had changed her, a war in which she probably had lost many people dear to her friends and family, maybe even watched them die.

Harry knew this because it had also happened to him, to Hermione and Ron, to everyone. Especially the ones fighting in the Battle of Hogwarts had somehow changed. Nobody was the same person as before, having witnessed so much horror, fear and sadness. Seeing good friends die and mourning the loss of Mothers, Fathers, Brothers, Sisters, Sons and Daughters.

"Harry?" he was pulled out of his thoughts by Minerva's gentle voice.

"Huh? Oh I'm sorry I have been thinking."

"Yes I noticed that, are you alright?" there was a flicker of worry in her voice.

"Yes I'm fine, I just- I never thought I would come back." he answered honestly without revealing what he really had been thinking about. He indeed had never thought of returning to Hogwarts as a teacher.

"It'll pass, after a week or so you will get used to it, I promise." Minerva said in a reassuring manner.

"Thank you." she smiled at him.

"You're welcome." the rest of the dinner went by pretty unspectacular, when everyone finished their dinner they stayed for a one last drink before everyone would be retiring to their Chambers or Offices. Harry was the first to get up when he finished his Fire Whisky.

"Well, it has been a wonderful first evening, I'm glad that I can be part of the Professors now, but please excuse me it has been quite a day. Good Night." he said and while a chorus of 'Thank you' and 'Good Night' could be heard, he glanced down and could have sworn, that Minerva had looked a little disappointed. In the next moment though, she looked up at him with a smile on her face.

"Good Night Harry. "

"Good Night Minerva."

When Harry arrived in his Chambers he indeed was more than tired, damn time travel. He brushed his teeth and then undress to his boxer shorts and a loose T-Shirt. When he pulled out of his shirt and stood in the bathroom only in his boxer shorts, one could see a few scars scattered over his body and a necklace. The symbol of the Deathly Hollows. Xenophilius Lovegood had worn it when he died and Luna had given the necklace to him, saying as he had been the last Master of them he should have it.

He had never taken it off since he got it from her. It was like a lucky charm for him and so much more. It would always remember him of his friends and family and all the brave souls who had lost their lives fighting for a future and what they believed in. Harry also liked to believe that when he wore the necklace they were with him, everyone of them, being there for him when he needed them.

With that the newly appointed Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor went back in his bedroom to lay down on his large and comfortable bed. Thinking about his new life and about meeting his parents, Sirius and Remus, Harry fell asleep.

His dreams though, were filled with a black haired and green eyed woman with a beautiful smile.

* * *

 **Hello again!**

 **Well the next chapter, I hope you liked it and will tell me in a review (or if you don't like it :D)**

 **As you might have notice, I decided to make it a Minerva/Harry stories as the majority of the reviewers would like to see them together. But surely you have seen that Minerva is younger, at the moment 29 but she is going to be 30 in October. As to why I aged her down, I like to write her this way and explore her character when she is young. I always thought that she would have been a little bit different when she was younger and that the war changed her, so she wouldn't let anyone close to her easily.**

 **Well in the next chapter, the students will arrive and the Marauders will have their first lesson with their new DADA Professor.**

 **A big thank you to everyone who reviewed or sent me a pm you're awesome!**

 **Have a nice weekend**

 **Patti**


	3. Professor Potter

Professor Potter

The next one and a half weeks until the first of September had passed quickly for Harry. He did his best to prepare for the lesson and felt like he was studying for his OWL's again as this was quite some work. Luckily for Harry, his predecessor hadn't been, like most of his teachers in this subject, a complete fool but quite a good teacher and his notes helped him a lot.

He had also made a few trips to Diagon Alley to get himself some clothes and other things he needed. Chronos had even managed to give him a fault in Gringotts full with money, not as much as he had in the future but it was more than enough. Harry had also furnished his Chambers a bit as well as given his office some personal touch.

For others, the most surprising thing in his Chambers would be the piano that stood in one corner of the living room. Yes Harry was playing the piano, he had learned in his early years as an Auror, it had something so calming for him, in rough times music was one way for him to release it all, it had grown to an important thing for him.

But settling down in Hogwarts hadn't been the only thing he had done, he also got to know his new colleagues. To say he befriended them would be too much, he liked them, enjoyed conversations and the time he spent with them but rather kept to himself. Still he got along well with everyone, even the ones who hadn't taught him during his time at Hogwarts.

The only exception to this was Minerva. Harry and Minerva had spent much time together and she was one major reason he had managed to pull up a curriculum for seven classes in under two weeks. The time they had spent together though, was still not enough for him to understand that this fun, loving witch was the strict, no nonsense, but still kind hearted Professor he knew back in his time.

In the time they spend together, they learned that they did share some interests. They both love Quidditch, she was a Montrose Magpies fan and he a fan of the Ballycastle Bats, both of them loved to read, though Harry was more into good crime novels and Minerva, though also enjoying a good novel, slightly preferred literature or Transfiguration Today. At least according to Minerva, when Harry decided to make some jokes, they shared a similar sense of humour.

Minerva wasn't the only thing on Harry's mind though, his parents and their best friends would attend Hogwarts today and he was also supposed to teach them! After 27 years he finally had the chance to talk to his parents while they were alive and he had to pretend that they were his students. Harry hoped that, knowing about the Marauders and everything, James and Sirius would leave him alone, regarding their pranks, he was James cousin after all. But a small voice in the back of his head told him that it was wish thinking, being related to one of the unofficial prank masters probably would only make it worse.

This evening Harry left his Chambers shortly after the train would have arrived at Hogsmeade Station meaning the students would arrive in less than half an hour. As he walked around a corner on the second floor he collided with someone who seemed to be late, considered the fast pace the person had.

There was a surprised yelp and the two fell to the floor, the second as they collided was enough for Harry to notice that the person was smaller than him, he spun them around so he would take the fall. Looking up Harry saw shining, green eyes and a pretty face close to his own.

"Hello Minerva, how can I help you?" he asked not able to keep the smirk off his lips.

"Oh- sorry! I-I wasn't paying attention where I was going, are you alright?"

"Pretty good to be honest." Harry answered and noticed slightly confused, but also a bit pleased that she did not make any movement to get off of him and he wouldn't complain as it was quite nice to be so close to her.

"What were you doing here anyway?"

"I- well I was looking for you."

"For me?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Err I thought I could swing by and accompany you to the Great Hall." Minerva explained a faint blush on her cheeks, before she got off of Harry, who followed her lead even though he missed her body so close to his. He noticed that a lock of her black hair had loosened from her bun, which was not as tight as he remembered, and hung in her face. Nearly automatically Harry reached up and stroked the strand of hair behind her ear. Instead of pulling it back again, Harry's hand lingered on her smooth skin for a moment.

"But you were coming from the Great Hall." Harry stated in a low voice, his hand still on the side of her face and the red on Minervas cheeks darkened while she thought about an answer. But when the witch opened her mouth to do so, somebody cleared their throat behind them and then a slightly amused person spoke.

"Hello there Minerva, Harry. Lovely evening isn't it?" Dumbledore said as he strode past them and down the corridor with a bright smile. Both Professors jumped away from each other, at the thought at being seen in this rather close position by the Headmaster. It even made Harry feel a bit uncomfortable, he didn't want the Headmaster to think he was already trying to hit on the woman, who he must know, once had been Harry's own Professor.

"Good evening Albus." both called after him at the same time and shared a smile, then there was an awkward silence between them as both waited for the other one to say something. Finally Harry broke the silence.

"Well, now that you've found me, will you walk down to the Great Hall with me?" Harry asked and Minerva nodded.

"I'd love to." so the two of them walked down and inside the Great Hall were they saw a far too happy and slightly out of breath Dumbledore sitting at the head table and Harry had the feeling that Filius and Pomona weren't grinning like that because they were so happy to see them.

"Something tells me, that our dear Headmaster sprinted down here and gossiped about what he saw." he mumbled.

"One day, he will get in much trouble for not being able to not gossip around." Minerva grumbled back as they reached the table and sat down next to each other under the knowing smirks and looks of their colleagues. While Minerva looked quite uncomfortable and sent Albus a glare every now and then, Harry on the other hand ignored the stares and even leaned extra close to Minerva to murmur into her ear. He was barely able to contain his grin when he saw how Professor Sprout nudged Flitwick in the side and pointed at them.

"Don't you have to go and get the First Years?" he was quiet pleased with what effect his low murmur had on Minerva, as she slightly shivered, but choose to ignore it.

"No not jet, and why are we whispering?" she asked back and Harry chuckled.

"For no particular good reason." was his answer and then continued to look as relaxed as possible, he couldn't deny the fact that he was a little nervous about meeting his parents. Soon enough the older students started to enter the Great Hall and walk their house tables, some chatted with their friends and took no notice of the new faces sitting at the staff table. A few other looked up and their eyes were fixed upon Harry, many of them even pointed their fingers at him and whispered with their friends, but after sixteen years of being the Boy Who Lived he was able to ignore that.

"This should be getting interesting, it seems like you already drew quite a few looks on you." Minerva said to him as she had also seen the stares, especially the ones the girls send him, but Harry only shrugged his shoulders. He then swallowed and sat straight up when he saw four students enter the Hall.

They were laughing at something Sirius said and his father ran a hand through his messy hair, leaving it even messier than before and there were a few girls who looked at him dreamingly. Beside that they were a little taller and slightly more mature, the four of them looked like Harry remembered them from the pensive in his fifth year. When his eyes laid on the small Peter, a wave of anger washed over him, there was the traitor that not only caused the death of his parents, but also killed Cedric. Merlin be damned if he wouldn't put the rat were it belonged.

Harry then saw how his father looked up at the head table and their eyes met, James grinned brightly at him and waved, his heart jumped a little because of the happiness he was feeling at the moment and he couldn't help but smile as he waved back. Remus and Sirius also looked up at him, then turned to James. Judging from their looks they asked him something, he answered with a nod and they exchanged high fives with each other grinning.

"I can't help but think they are under the impression you will favour them to no end." the slightly amused witch beside him said, Harry chuckled.

"Oh they are more than wrong, they won't know what's going to hit them." and he wasn't lying, Harry was known as one of the hardest instructors the Ministry ever had, with only Mad Eye Moody being rougher on the trainees than him. Harry also knew what was about to happen, he certainly wouldn't go easy on them when a war was going on outside these walls, they should be able to defend themselves, he would give them all a chance to survive this war.

Now it was Minerva's turn to laugh quietly, before she got up to greet the First Years. Her hand laid on his shoulder and gave him a small squeeze and his fingers briefly touched hers, before she left the table. Harry followed her every step with his eyes and halfway through the hall she looked over her shoulder and smiled at him, he then watched how Minerva greeted a student when she left through the door.

Harry immediately recognized her, she had long, flaming red hair and looked really pretty. His mother talked to a pretty brown haired girl he didn't know and sat down a few places away from the marauders. Though she tried to hide it, Harry saw how Lily Evans glanced over to James once or twice while the brown haired girl spoke to her.

A few minutes later the doors to the Hall opened again and Minerva followed by the First Years entered the Great Hall. Harry followed the sorting with great interest and applauded every time a student was sorted, no matter what house. When Alice Bagley was the first one to be sorted into Slytherin, Harry watched her taking a seat and three people away from Alice Bagley sat a pale, black haired and hook nosed teenager.

There was no hate left in Harry for Severus Snape, he admitted that he did not like him, he probably never would. But Harry was acknowledging him for what he did, yes he saved his life and helped him, but for Harry the years of abuse he went through because of Snape wouldn't go away because he did something good on a few occasions. For Harry, he would always be the one who sign his parents death sentence along with Pettigrew, and this was something Harry simply couldn't forgive him.

Once the sorting was finished and Minerva had returned to the seat next to him, Albus raised and held his speech to welcome the new and old students. The headmaster then proceeded in introducing him and Cooper, starting with the later of the two.

"And finally, please welcome your new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, Harrison Potter! He was an Auror and we are honoured that he is here." Dumbledore said and the whole hall applauded for him. Harry noticed, quite happy, that the Marauders were cheering and applauding for him the loudest and he couldn't help the smile and bowed a little before sitting back down.

"Now, let the feast begin!" said Dumbledore and the food appeared on the tables.

"It is quite fascinating." Minerva said after a while into the dinner and Harry turned to look at her, as he put the last fork of backed potato in his mouth.

"What?" he asked once he had finished chewing.

"The students, during their summer many of them have to fear for their lives and the lives of the ones they hold dear, but when they return here, they can be children again. Even if it only means to be able to sleep somewhere save. Of course they are scared that in the morning they will get notice that a family member died, but they know they are save here." she said and while the Transfiguration Mistress spoke she'd let her eyes wander over the crowd of talking and laughing students.

"I just hope we'll be able to keep them save."

"You're right, but we will defend Hogwarts so the students are save. Hogwarts won't fall," Harry answered her and Minerva nodded thoughtfully. "You can trust me." he added and their eyes met.

"I already do."

* * *

"Welcome to the N.E.W.T class of Defence Against the Dark Arts." Harry said as he stood in front of the seventh years that had qualified for the lesson. He saw James, Sirius and Remus in the third row to his right, probably because sitting in the first row would ruin their reputation. He was also quite pleased to see that Peter hadn't made it into the N.E.W.T class. Snape on the other hand was sitting in a dark corner of the last row, as far away from him as possible.

"As you hopefully remember my name is Harrison Potter, but Professor Potter will do for you. First of all congratulations that you made it into this course, you will probably regret it before Christmas." he said and was pleased that everyone looked a bit shocked and that nobody dared to say anything.

"You will learn how to defend yourself and you will pass your N.E.W.T, because I won't have any of you walk around and ruin my reputation in failing your exam when I have taught you. When I am through with you, you will be on the standard of a first year Auror trainee. It will be hard I won't deny that but it will be worth it."

He then proceeded in telling them what they would learn this year, when he had finished he looked at the students which didn't seem any less enthusiastic than before, maybe even more so. The brown haired girl, whom he recognized as the one his mother had sat with the evening before, as well as she did now, raised her hand.

"Yes Miss-?"

"McKinnon, Marlene McKinnon Sir. I just wanted to know- as you were an Auror- why did you decide to teach? I mean, the Ministry will need every capable Auror won't they?" she asked and Harry nodded slightly, trying to come over the fact that he was talking to a girl that was going to die in this war alongside her whole family.

"Good question Miss McKinnon. As you said I was an Auror, and I liked my job but as you also correctly pointed out, we will need every capable witch and wizard to win this war. This includes you. When you leave this school and decide to fight, then you need to be able to fight and survive, I wanted to teach because I want you to be able to defend yourself and the ones you hold dear." Harry said and looked at the students who had gone quiet. "Does that answer you question Miss McKinnon?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Another thing, addressing me with Professor Potter or only Professor will be enough, there is no need to call me Sir."

"What about Harry, Harry?" James asked and a few giggled, Harry slowly turned his head towards his father. Knowing that especially he, his mother, Sirius, Remus and the other ones who would join the order needed the lesson, he wouldn't tolerate any silliness in his classroom, not even from them.

"Even though we are related Mr. Potter, please notice I will treat you exactly like anybody else, maybe even harder so you life up to the Potter name. Consider this as your last warning, should you or one of your friends, show any disrespect in my classroom, including making fun of any sort, I won't hesitate to take points from you or put you into detention. Did I make myself clear?" everyone in the class looked like Harry had made himself crystal clear.

He turned to the chalkboard but stopped and turned his head towards his father once more. "Before I forget, I won't take points from you because of that, as you didn't know, but any relative bonus you might have had is gone now." James looked surprised but nodded his head.

"Well today we will start with something simple, I want you to show me what you already able to do." he looked around the class and his eyes fixed Lupin.

"Mr. Lupin, would you please demonstrate me and the class the Expelliarmus Spell?" with a flick of his Wand Harry caused the chalkboard to slide to the other end of the room giving them more space. As expected his request was met by many chuckles and more confident looks, Lupin on the other hand got up and stood in front of Harry but didn't look like it was a more than easy spell he had to perform on a teacher.

"On three okay? One, two, three." Harry counted and on three Lupin raised his wand.

"Expelliarmus!" he said and to Harry's delight, not that he had expected different from Remus, his wand flew into Remus's hand.

"Well done Mister Lupin, who's next?" a Ravenclaw boy raised his hand.

"Yes Mr.?"

"Greg Oswald. Professor."

"Come here Mr. Oswald, Mr Lupin you can sit down." Remus handed Harry his wand before walking back to his seat while Greg walked up to Harry. But when he and the three other students after him couldn't perform a legitimate Disarming Charm Harry decided to step in.

"I will count this as left over laziness from the holidays, as I can't come up with another excuse as to why four seventh years weren't able to perform a good Expelliarmus. You are going to pair up and then practice the spell." he said and felt like a rebellious fifteen year old again, training his friends in a secret and forbidden defence group.

It seemed though like it had been the minority of the students who couldn't perform the spell, both his parents, Sirius, Remus, Marlene and Severus could perform the spell without any problem, but that didn't surprise him in the slightest.

Harry would let them practice a few more spells on each other to see on which level they all were, so he could organize the lesson in a way everyone would be able follow, but still making sure the better students had a challenge.

"Okay, listen! I want you to practice these spells until the next lesson and a one foot long essay on why the Expelliarmus spell could save your life in a Duel." Harry said when the bell rang ending the lesson. "But if I catch any of you practising in the halls and on other students you'll lose more than house points!" he added and his glare made sure nobody would dare to find out what exactly they would loose.

The three Marauders stayed behind and waited until the rest of the class had left.

"That was an awesome first lesson Professor Potter." James said and didn't sound angry or anything that Harry hadn't played favourites with him.

"Glad you enjoyed it, you can call me by my first name when we are alone but beside that I'm Professor Potter, I hope you don't hold that against me." was his answer and the three smiled.

"No, to be honest I hadn't expected anything different from you."

"But you hoped he would." Sirius stated grinning and James glared at him.

"Anyway, we just wanted to say it's great to have you as a teacher. See you around." with that the three left before Harry could come up with an answer.

"I'm also glad." he whispered to an empty classroom before he turned around and prepared for his next lesson. Maybe, only maybe, it wasn't that bad Chronos and Severin had send him back in time.

* * *

 **Well another chapter!**

 **I planned to update last night, buuut as was down most of the day I couldn't, I still hope you liked the chapter.**

 **Please leave me a review and tell me what you think :)**

 **Another thing, please no hate for my opinion on Snape, he is a cool character, but also a big arse. He won't be the source of evil in this, but don't expect him to be the hero or even a good person either. Harry also won't be Severus new Guardian, he won't bully him as Snape did with him (he did you can't argue with that), but they won't be friends.**

 **And yes Harry still likes Dumbledore, I admit I like Dumbledore more than Snape, that's the way it is. Harry won't follow Dumbledore blindly but he will have a good relationship with him.**

 **XxDragon King DragneelxX** **pointed something out for me I forgot to say. For me Hogwarts was always a little bigger than in the films, not as big as JKR said in early interviews, but there are around 500 students at Hogwarts. I always thought that there are more dormitories for each year. We only knew about the one of Harry, because it was the one he and Ron were staying in. :) Hope you don't mind.**

 **Thank you to everyone who reviewed you're great!**

 **Patti**


	4. Hogsmeade

Hogsmeade

One month had passed since the new year in Hogwarts had begun. Harry had fully arrived in this time and was a Professor at heart, he was a strict teacher and he had the reputation to be as strict as McGonagall, maybe even more, but also as fair as her.

"You will write me a two feet of parchment on Grindylows until Friday." Harry said to his third year class who all nodded and then packed their things. He now had a free period and decided to take a walk on the grounds on this nice autumn day. But when he walked down the stairs, his feet did not carry him towards the portal, instead he walked into the inner yard and to the Transfiguration classroom where the students were just entering. In one moment he had decided what to do and disillusioned himself, before slipping inside the classroom just before the last student would.

Minerva stood in front of the class and waited until the last student, a Hufflepuff girl, had closed the door. "Well let's begin!" she said and Harry quietly walked up the front and sat down on the windowsill to Minerva's right.

As she taught them he somehow felt transported back into his own school days, her teaching methods hadn't changed in the years until he would attend school. What troubled Harry a little were the growing feelings towards the Transfiguration Professor, which he couldn't deny, he couldn't say why that was, maybe because she was the only one left from is old time who was still alive and with whom he had a good relationship and whom he considered a very good friend.

There was also the fact that she was a simply beautiful, a natural beauty at that, who wasn't fixated on her appearance and a great woman, even though she had changed because of the war they still had so much in common. He had always searched for a woman like that, one who was fun and loving, but also fierce, strong and independent and here she was. Maybe she had always been there but he hadn't realized it, back then they both had no such intentions and age and many other things had robbed them from the chance to might find the one their heart truly belonged to.

Another thought then entered his mind, could he really do this in this time? It wasn't his time, he was from the future, Harry would never be truthful to her, he would live a lie. And this was something he couldn't do to her, Minerva deserved nothing but the truth, was he really that selfish? Harry didn't want to hurt her or see her hurt in anyway. Harry also knew what would happen, what suffering they had to go through, could he watch how she changed into the Professor he knew? Knowing it was because she would watch friends and students die under her eyes, he himself doomed to watch not allowed to interfere too much.

Thinking about that, what would happen if he revealed his feelings to her? Were they even able to be together without him changing too much? Harry couldn't do that, especially not to her, if she ever was to know who he was and that she was the reason the future had changed for the bad? No, he couldn't do that to her, Harry just couldn't even if it meant to live alone again.

The ringing of the bell pulled Harry out of his thoughts, he watched as Minerva gave the students their homework and Harry quietly stood up, once the last students left the classroom Harry became visible again, sneaked up on the black haired witch and spoke.

"I can see why they fear you." Harry said and startled her so much she gave a small yelp of surprise as she spun around. When she saw it was Harry though, she relaxed.

"Harry! Merlin you nearly gave me a heart attack! What are you doing here?" she asked and Harry grinned, both of them didn't notice the two shadows by the door.

"Well I wanted to take part in the famous Transfiguration class of Minerva McGonagall." she rolled her eyes.

"Of course you did," she said sarcastically. "Why are you really here?" she then asked.

"I just told you." Harry answered her honestly and Minerva walked back to her desk on which she sat down.

"So did you enjoy spying on a colleague?" he chuckled.

"When that colleague is named Minerva McGonagall, then yes, it was quite interesting." he said and scratched his chin which was now covered by a black beard.

"Hmm, I guess I should call myself lucky then, that the great Professor Potter wasn't bored of my lesson."

"Oh I would never be bored by you and even if that was the case I wouldn't be as crazy as to tell you." Minerva glared at him, while Harry smiled at her, then her eyes softened.

"The first Hogsmeade visit will be on the weekend." she stated, tilting her head to her right and looked him in the eyes.

"Right, I can't say I'm not happy to be able to have a drink at the Three Broomsticks." he answered.

"Yeah, well...do you- do you want to go there with me?" Minerva tried to ask casually yet somewhat hopeful, still Harry wasn't fifteen anymore, he knew that it was meant like a date. Damn it, just when he had decided to go against his feelings and not aim for a closer relationship with his beautiful colleague she was asking him out on a date. Harry's heart beat strong in his chest, he couldn't do it, he couldn't do that to her, she deserved someone who could make her happy and fulfil her dreams.

The witch in front of him grew visibly nervous and fiddled with her hands a little.

"Harry?"

"Minerva...I don't think this is a good idea...I really like you but not in that way, I'm sorry if my behaviour suggest anything else." he said watched how her face fell, what he hadn't expected was the pain he felt inside him as he lied to her.

"Oh...oh o-okay that's alright...no problem." she tried to smile, but it didn't work and it only pained him more to see her hurt knowing he was the reason for it. Was it really the right thing to do? But before he could say anything else, the next class started to enter.

"I-"

"It's alright...please go." Harry wanted to say something but decided to leave it be, it was painful enough for both of them as it was and then left the classroom. He was so deep in his thoughts, that he didn't took notice of the two students who tried to look like it was the most normal thing in the world to just stand around in the yard.

"You saw that?" asked Lily once Harry had disappeared around the corner and Remus who stood beside her nodded.

"Yeah, but more importantly did you hear that? McGonagall likes Professor Potter, poor woman."

"Why poor?" Lily asked her second favourite Marauder slightly confused.

"Well Professor Potter rejected her." he answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh Remus my dear friend, you have to learn so much more, didn't you see how he looked when he left? He likes her too! Why else would he visit her lesson?" the Head Girl said.

"But why did he reject her when he likes her back?" Remus asked a little confused.

"Hmm, I don't know why, but what I know is, that the two would be perfect for each other."

"Who would be perfect for each other?" the deep voice of Sirius suddenly asked behind them with James by his side.

"Your cousin and McGonagall."

"They like each other." Lily added to what Remus had said.

"Oh really? Great let's get them together, it's been years since he had a girlfriend." James said in an instant.

"Whoa, wait a minute," Sirius stated holding up his hands "are we planning to set up down teachers?"

"Sure why not, they deserve some happiness, who knows what will happen in a few months." Lily answered.

"Well, let's get a plan ready!"

* * *

The next days were hell for Harry, Minerva tried to act normal but she couldn't hide the fact from him that she was hurt. This caused also Harry's mood to reach a new low level, many students were confused as to why the DADA and Transfiguration Professors were both behaving strangely. Except for the Marauders and Lily, but nobody would say anything.

Harry even took points from Sirius in class because he had chuckled too loud. The young Professor was in an inner conflict, should he give up and go after his feelings or not. It was fascinating that he already needed her by his side like he had only needed two people before her, Hermione and Ron. Harry felt miserable that he had hurt her and that she wouldn't be longer than a few minutes near him, even sitting in between Aurora and Pomona at the meals. First of the two would often glare at him whenever she got the chance.

It was nearly three in the morning on Saturday 3rd of October and the first day for the students to spend in the wizard village. Harry sat at his piano and played while occasionally taking a sip of Fire Whisky, he had spend most of the Friday evening and night like that, even skipping dinner. Playing the piano helped him sort out his mind.

And finally he had made a decision, didn't he of all deserved to find someone to be with? He had destroyed the Dark Lord, fought in a war as a teenager and when he finally had a peaceful life, two Unspeakables send him back in time to do it all over again.

He was here, robbed of his friends and family, doomed to see his dead parents but not being able to tell him he was their son. So why did he talk himself into loneliness when there was a wonderful woman who might feel like him? He would let her decide if she wanted to be with him, but he would at least try. He played the last notes of the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata then gulped down the Fire Whisky and walked to his bed to lay down, still half clothed and fall into a dreamless sleep.

When Harry woke up the next morning he felt better than he had the last days before, he turned his head and looked out the window to his left. The sun of this bright and clear October day shone inside his chambers, he sat up and as his eyes went over his nightstand and the clock upon it, he jumped out of bed. It was already half past three! He had slept over twelve hours, something which hadn't happened since his time with the Dursleys. Minerva was surely already in the small wizard village if he wasn't too late and she had already returned to the castle.

He quickly showered and dressed before he hurried out his chambers and office to Minerva's, when he knocked on her door he got no answer, Harry didn't lose any time and hurried down to the Great Hall but she wasn't there either. Just walking through the great oak doors were Pomona and Filius.

"Do you know where-" before he could finish his question the Herbology Professor interrupted him.

"She's still in Hogsmeade with Aurora, don't mess up again." Pomona said as they walked past him and entered the Great Hall, he turned his head intending to say something, but the Professors didn't wait for an answer and walked up to the Head Table.

Pomona was right, because when Harry entered the Three Broomsticks later, slightly out of breath from running all they way down to the village, he spotted her and Aurora on a table to his left near the bar. Only a second later hot anger boiled inside him when he saw an elderly wizard standing way too close to Minerva and his hand caressing her back.

Almost involuntarily his hands clenched into fists and it took Harry a moment to get his temper back under control, so he could walk closer to hear what they were saying without cursing the wizard.

"-I told you I'm not interested in you like that Elphinstone and that hasn't changed." Minerva said sounding fairly annoyed and Aurora beside her also looked like she had to keep herself from interfere.

"Please Minerva, one evening, I will leave you alone after that, just give me one evening." his hand wandered down her back and Minerva turned away from him so the wizards hand slid in the air.

"Stop that now!" she demanded, but it seemed like Elphinstone was tired of being patient and wouldn't accept a no anymore. He grabbed Minerva's upper arm and pulled her towards him.

"You won't be able to hold me off forever, I usually get what I want, you should know that!" he said and now Harry wasn't able to control his growing anger and jealousy any longer. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw that also Aurora had pulled her wand, but Harry was faster, he grabbed the older wizard by the collar of his robe, pulling him off Minerva.

"She said no and you better listen to her and go now!" he held Elphinstone close to his face and was barely able to hold himself back from hurting the wizard. "You will never bother her again or else you will regret it, because I will make you regret it, do you understand me?" Harry growled and pushed him away so Elphinstone fell against some fourth years.

"Harry!" Minerva had jumped up looking quite resentful, Aurora on the other hand looked like she had to bite back a chuckle. "What were you thinking?" she asked him and Harry stared after a fleeing Elphinstone, he then turned around and when he saw her angry face his own anger was forgotten in an instant.

"W-well he was hassling you." said but it came out sounding more like a question than an answer.

"Yes, but I could have handled him myself just fine!" she said glaring at him but Harry smiled.

"Oh I know very well you can, but that doesn't mean I'll stand by and watch." was his answer and Minerva blinked at him.

"Come on sit down with us Potter, your first drink is on me." Aurora said behind them and ginned at him, Harry and Minerva sat back down at the table.

"I thought you were too busy to come, Minerva said that after she tried to ask you- ouch!" Aurora yelped, stopped mid sentence and glared at Minerva while she reached down probably to rub her shin whom Minerva had kicked under the table.

"Yes she was right, but I thought I could handle delaying my work for a visit here, it's been so long." he answered and Minerva looked surprised for a moment, maybe she hadn't expected him to cover the story she had told Aurora when her friend, who had made her ask Harry on a date in the first place, wanted to know if she had asked Harry out.

"Okay I had already thought she made that up." Aurora said and only grinned when her friend threw another glare at her. Madam Rosmerta arrived at their table and Harry ordered a Mead. The three of them had a great time, sharing funny stories about their years as teachers and his as an Auror, though he had to be careful so he wouldn't reveal that all that had happened in the future.

They spent the rest of the day in the Three Broomsticks, around half past ten Aurora left them and Harry pretended to not notice the quite conversation Minerva and Aurora shared when the later left, he clearly saw that the Astronomy Professor winked at him and nodded her head at the witch beside him.

As the Pub had also emptied from Hogwarts students as they had to be in the school so they wouldn't break the curfew, the two sat a little closer than before. The two of them continued their conversation, but nearly an hour later Minerva asked something she probably wanted to ask the whole evening.

"So, did you really come here only for a drink?"

"No, not only." Harry answered honestly looking at her.

"Then why are you here?" she asked again and couldn't conceal her confusion.

"Because I lied to you and in doing so I made a great mistake."

"You lied to me?"

"Yes I did, when you asked me if I wanted to accompany you here I lied to you, there was nothing in the world I wanted to do more. But I-" he paused searching for the right words. "I didn't expect you to ask me out as I was convincing myself I wasn't good enough for such a wonderful witch. I still don't think I am, but the last days have shown me that I can't stand being away from you, not able to talk to you like we used to. So...well I didn't want to take away your decision, because you're an adult and can decide for yourself with whom you want to be and I can't tell myself you wouldn't want me if you never said so yourself."

There was a long pause between them, then suddenly he felt a hand on his left cheek turning his face to the witch beside him and a moment later warm and soft lips tasting somehow sweet and fresh laid on his own. For a half a moment he was too surprised to do anything but then he gave in to the incredible feeling. He had nearly forgotten what it was like to kiss somebody for whom he felt something deeper, then again maybe it had never been like this.

Even the hottest make out sessions or the kisses during sex with Ginny were nothing compared to this gentle, single-lip kiss, as it was enough to send fireworks off in his stomach and the small hairs on his arms and neck stood up as both happiness and pleasure waved over him. Harry felt like he had never kissed someone in his life as these feelings were new and he decided he never wanted to kiss anybody else. After a few moment, which for Harry could have gladly been some weeks, they parted.

"Does that give you an answer?" Minerva asked a small smile on those wonderful lips. Harry pretended to think for a moment.

"I don't know maybe you have to give me another hint." he answered and Minerva leaned in again to press her lips gently onto his, Harry immediately responded to the actions and his right laid on the side of her face. As they parted once more, Harry looked at her and Minerva spoke again.

"Just one thing, don't lie to me again." he was barely able to keep the smile on his face, but then he quickly persuaded him that he wasn't lying to Minerva, he was simply not telling her everything. He would be crazy to tell her just now that he was her former student from the future.

"I won't, I promise." Harry found himself saying and ignored the Hermione voice in his head telling him he was an idiot.

"I really thought that you meant what you said...that I had misinterpreted everything." Minerva said and looked down at her hands on the table.

"You didn't, how could somebody not fall in love with you." his mouth had been faster than his brain and Minerva stared at him, but he made no attempts to take it back.

"You are?" he swallowed and then nodded.

"I am." he expected her to tell him that that was to early, that he couldn't know, but she didn't. Instead Minerva took his hand in hers and gave it a squeeze.

"Well then...it seems like that makes two of us." she answered and Harry couldn't resist.

"You are in love with yourself?" she looked dumbfounded for a moment and Harry couldn't believe he had really said that and closed his eyes, grimacing at the sheer stupidity of what he said. But then, to his utter surprise, Minerva giggled and broke out into a full laughter seconds later and he joined in.

"Can we please forget I ever said that?" Harry asked once they had stopped laughing.

"No, at least I won't." she answered, "But I probably won't tell anyone."

"Probably?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"That depends what I get in-" Harry interrupted her when he kissed her again and smiled once he pulled back. "That might have been enough to keep me from telling Aurora."

"Lucky me." he said sarcastically but couldn't hide the smirk, he then looked down at his watch, another hour had passed and now it was nearly half past eleven. "I think we should go back to the castle." he stated and Minerva nodded. They paid their food and drinks before stepping into the night, it was colder than both of them had expected and before Minerva could even pull out her wand she felt a heavy cloak on her shoulders. Harry had conjured one for both of them and then they walked up to the castle, but they were in no hurry.

Harry was even so bold as to lay his arm around Minerva who in return leaned into his side, as they slowly walked up to the castle. "Would...would it okay for you if we kept this...well us...from the others for a bit?" Minerva asked suddenly "I don't mean it like I want to hide because I don't want anybody to find out, I just- I would like to keep this to us for a while." she quickly added and looked at him.

"Of course not." Harry stated with a reassuring smile on his face, he was even on her side on this, nearly all his relationships had been out in the open in the early stages of the relationship and keeping it to themselves would be nice. It would be something just they knew, something just for them and it wasn't like they were in real relationship just now.

When they arrived in the school he glanced at his watch and saw that it was shortly before midnight, reminding him that it was Minerva's birthday in a few minutes. He walked her up to her chambers and once they arrived she turned to look at him.

"Well, I actually don't know what to say." Minerva admitted and blushed a little.

"I do, close your eyes and don't open them." Harry said and smiled at her before she did as he had asked. Once her eyes were closed he fumbled the little present out of his pocket. "Don't peek and hold out your hand." he said and then placed the small wrapped package in her open palm before he disillusioned himself again. Harry then gave her a gentle peck on the lips before he leaned in to whisper in her ear.

"Happy Birthday Minerva." he stepped back and watched how she opened her eyes and was surprised to not see him anywhere, then she looked down and smiled at the present. Unknowing to her he watched as she opened it and gasped when she saw a beautiful brooch.

"Thank you Harry." she whispered into the empty corridor and then went inside her chambers. Harry on the other hand made his way back to his own chambers with swinging steps as he hadn't felt that great in a long time. In that moment he couldn't care less which outcome his actions might have, he was happy, really happy and nothing in the universe could change that.

* * *

 **Another chapter ready for you my dear readers!**

 **I really had them kiss! That little drama in the beginning was necessary, what is a romance without a little drama? ;)**

 **Well now our favourite Professors are dating, you read right, they are no couple yet, they are dating. (I'm not a fan of having people kiss for the first time and say they love each other in the next moment when they only met each other what felt like yesterday)**

 **I hope you remember the brooch McGonagall wore in the first two films, I always wondered how she got it and well here is what I think could have happened.**

 **Also Aurora Sinistra will be Minervas best friend in this, as I never read a story were she was a reappearing character and I never wrote her so I guessed this could be fun, hope you all agree. She will be kinda a mix between Ron and Hermione, having a brain like our brightest witch of her age and the humour and funny side remarks of Ron. At least I hope I can write her this way :D**

 **A big thank you to everyone that reviewed the last chapter, you can't imagine who happy I am that you like the story so much! I hope you will also review this chapter and tell me what you think!**

 **Patti**


	5. Of Detention And Dates

Of Detention And Dates

Harry couldn't remember when he had been this happy. He either couldn't or wouldn't remember if he had been this happy in his old time, he loved his teaching job, he could talk to his parents, Sirius, Remus and Albus, even though four of them didn't know who he really was. But the of course the biggest reason for his happy mood was, that the most beautiful, loving, intelligent and bravest witch he knew was returning his feelings and dating him.

Barely three weeks had passed since they admitted their feelings for each other in the Three Broomsticks, and Harry couldn't imagine it any other way. Minerva just made everything better for him and as long as she was by his side, it was okay that he had to pretend to be someone else for everybody including his parents.

It was Thursday October the 29th and a cold but clear morning when Harry stood up, he noticed he was a little early and decided to take a detour and walk to Minerva's chambers so he could accompany her to breakfast. Just when he walked around the corner of the corridor leading to her chambers, Minerva stepped out of them and turned to walk towards him. When she noticed Harry she paused in surprise, before walking closer with a bright and happy smile on her lips.

"What are you doing here?" she asked when she came to a halt before him, her smile not leaving her face and Harry smiled back.

"Well, I'm here because I wanted to accompany a beautiful witch to breakfast, so we can have some moments to ourselves, before we won't see each other for nearly the whole day." he said truthfully but still exaggerating a little as he stepped closer.

"You know that you are exaggerating?" Minerva asked and Harry winked at her.

"Yes I do, but I can't help myself." he said while the black haired witch looked around, before she stood on her toes to kiss him.

"Good morning you," she murmured against his lips once they had parted.

"Good morning to you too, did you sleep well?" Harry asked and gave her another peck on the lips and laid his arm around her middle, before they turned and made their way to the Great Hall.

"Good, even though I didn't correct the homework of my fourth class for tomorrow, so I'll have to do this tonight." Minerva said.

"What? I'm shocked to hear you left some work undone! Who are you and what have you done to Minerva?" he said bemused while his thump started to stroke her side.

"Yeah, I guess you have a bad influence on me." she answered.

"Hey you can't make me responsible for everything you do."

"Oh I can," Minerva held him back and pulled him down for another kiss, but this time longer and a bit more passionate.

"And how was this my fault?" Harry asked quietly with a small smile on his lips when they had parted once more and pulled her against his body.

"You're too good looking and I like you way too much." Minerva said before turning out of his embrace and walking on, Harry shook his head chuckled before catching up with her and laying his arm back around her waist were it belonged.

"You are wonderful, do you know that?" he mumbled and placed a small kiss on the top of her head, Minerva though, had no time to say anything as they heard laughter behind them. They quickly broke apart and walked less close to each other, only moments later a group of third year Gryffindors walked around the corner behind them and then past the two, who pretended to be only colleagues.

"Harry, Minerva, I was just looking for you, can I have a word with you?" Dumbledore said the moment the two of them entered the Great Hall. For a moment Harry feared someone had told him about their relationship, as by an old rule set by the four Founders, Professors were not allowed to form relationships. But they had been so careful, nobody knew they were actually dating expect Aurora, and at Hogwarts that was saying something.

"Sure Albus." Minerva said and Harry nodded at the older wizard who lead them to the nearest empty classroom and put some charms around the room, so nobody could eavesdrop on them or anything.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"Well, I have a mission for the two of you, Alastor told me about a Death Eater meeting at the Avery Mansion on Saturday night, we need to know what they have planned, Aurors would simply arrest them and trying to get information afterwards which will be useless. Beside that, Tom would only free them." Dumbledore said.

"We?" Minerva asked.

"Yes, both of you are Animagus and because of that extremely helpful for us, you will be less likely to get caught by them." but when Minerva had heard that they _both_ were Animagus she looked at her boyfriend surprised.

"You're an Animagus?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, I never found the right chance to tell you." Harry said honestly and in the next moment transfigured into his Animagus form, so only a second later a beautiful, slightly larger than average black fox sat next to the two Professors. Minerva looked both surprised and fascinated at Harry, who slide his body against Minervas legs and bumped his nose against her hand, which caused her to stroke his thick but soft black fur. Then the fox turned way and Harry stood next to them again.

"Well, will you do it?" Albus asked and looked at the two Professors.

"I will," Harry answered unsurprisingly and then looked at Minerva, "What about you?" she seemed to think about it for a moment.

"I'll do it too, when should we go?"

"Tomorrow night would be best, I think we do right in covering you disappearance from the students as much as we can, so we won't draw too much attention on you." Dumbledore said and the couple nodded.

"Good, I will give you more details tomorrow evening." with that the three left the classroom.

"You don't think I should come with you, don't you?" Minerva whispered into Harry's ear when they sat down on their seats at the head table and he still hadn't said anything to her.

"No, I know you can handle yourself just fine, but that doesn't mean I like it, I like you after all, I'm trying to find a solution, so I won't make you feel like you are weak and actually wanting to protect you." the dark haired wizard answered honestly. "Six years as an Auror don't go by without leaving some issues."

Minerva took his hand under the table and gave it a light squeeze, "You have no Idea how much I want to be alone with you right now, so I could kiss you." she said in an even quieter whisper and Harry smiled at her.

"No problem my dear, I will remind you later." Then the two of them ate their breakfast together, but of course did not talk about the mission they had been given by Dumbledore.

"Have a great day." Harry said to the witch who smiled up at him.

"To you too, I can't wait until it's lunch." Minerva said and with a small wink Harry turned around and made his way towards his classroom. When he arrived in the corridor of the DADA classroom he saw that half of the class was standing together in a small crowed laughing and cheering. Having a bad feeling Harry quickened his pace but was also careful he wasn't noticed by anyone until he saw what was going on, the bad feeling increased when he saw his father and Sirius standing in the middle of the crowed. And his feeling proofed to be right.

Kneeling at James feet was Snape, he was bound and James was washing his hair and with a spell and flowers were growing out of his ears and nose.

"Next time you try to hex me when I turn my back on you Snivellus, look to it that your greasy hair doesn't cover your eyes." James said looking down at the literally fuming Snape with a glare.

"Detention Mr. Potter."James whirled around and looked at him shocked, as did everyone else, who also stopped laughing.

"But Ha- Professor! He was-"

"I don't care what he was doing!" Harry said sternly and lifted the hexes off of Snape. "Are you alright Mr. Snape?" he asked.

"Yes." Severus growled angrily and glared at Harry even though he did the exact opposite of what he though he would be doing. With a final glare at James and Harry he stormed into the classroom.

"Professor he start-"

"10 Points from Gryffindor, don't you question my decisions Mr. Potter. I don't care if he tried to hex you first, if he did than you had the right to defend yourself, but that doesn't give you the right to attack him too. And certainly not to humiliate him." Harry said seriously and when he looked around everyone suddenly seemed to be very interested in their shoes. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his mother and Marlene arrive together with Remus and look around confused as to what had happened.

"I'm sorely disappointed that nobody said a word, that every single one of you stood by laughing. As a Gryffindor myself I don't say this easily, but I've never been more ashamed to say I was in the same house as you. Everyone of you will write me one feet of parchment on why bullying is not okay and why you should stand up for fellow students regardless of their house and most importantly why you have to write that extra essay." not one of them refused or seemed to be angry.

"Inside with you." Harry said and walked inside followed by the students. When everyone had found their seats and became quiet, not that any of them had talked much, he started the lesson.

"As to expect we will continue with the non-verbal spells. Take out your wands and try to open the locked box in front of you. If you manage to open it, you will find yourself a partner and try to stun him without using the incarnation. Remember if you don't say the words you have to concentrate more and do the exact wand movement."

The class did as told and Harry spent most of the lesson wandering around the classroom and helping the students. He wasn't surprised when Remus and Lily were the first ones who managed to unlock their boxes and tried to stun each other. At the end of the lesson Remus even managed to produce a Stupefy, but it was still too weak to cause his mother more than an uneasy feeling when hit. Also Sirius, James, Snape, Marlene and Greg Oswald who had improved a great deal managed to open the boxes and were trying to stun each other, but with less success than Remus or Lily.

"Potter?" Harry called out, feeling a bit weird to do so with his own surname.

"Yes Professor?" James asked but didn't sound so fond of talking to him.

"Detention at my office this evening after dinner." James nodded and then left the classroom to catch up with Sirius and Remus.

"We really need to get him and McGonagall together quickly." he grumbled when he reached two of his best friends outside the classroom.

"Only because of one detention? You almost got detention every month for the past six years, why bother now?" asked Remus. "Because he is your cousin?"

"No, because he defended Snivellus and not me and because he needs to lose up a bit, the first years are terrified by him." James answered but didn't sound too convincing.

"And because he is your cousin and put you in detention." Sirius stated and grinned when his best friend glared at him, because he knew he was right.

"Fine and because he put me in detention." he said and pushed his glasses a little closer to his face. "But they still have to get together, they are good for each other."

"Alright, let's meet with your half imaginary girlfriend to get our plan ready." Sirius answered while scratching the back of his head and push his friend forward.

* * *

The rest of the day went by pretty unspectacular, Harry had to deal with some second year Hufflepuff who, in his clumsy and quiet behaviour reminded him strongly of Neville when they had been this old and some lazy fifth years whom Harry had to scare quite a bit before they would leave their attitude behind.

Still, the situation with his father and Snape had taken a toll on the good mood Harry had this morning. Even more so as he had to skip lunch in order to have time for his father's detention without delaying his work because he doubt he had time to do on the weekend with Dumbledore's mission.

Harry had to admit that it was wishful thinking he could do much to change the relationship of his father and his former Potions Professor, Snape was also a git in this time, even when Harry was theoretically an other person, but his father wasn't that much better. Seeing him humiliate Snape in the pensive had already been difficult, but witnessing it with his own eyes was even worse.

Harry had made a plan to talk to his father this evening, if he told him that he needed to change his behaviour or else Lily would never go out with him, than it should work. And if not then he hoped that he would stop being an immature bully by himself like he did in Harry's old time.

"A knut for your thoughts?" the amused voice pulled Harry out of this thoughts and he looked around to see Minerva standing next to his desk, a small smile playing around her lips. He returned the smile and stood up.

"I would give you even more."

"Oh really? What about a kiss?" she asked and Harry pretended to think about it.

"Certainly." he then said and leaned in to kiss her, this really did boost his mood. When they parted Harry slide his arms around Minervas waist and pulled her against him, while she laid her own hands on his shoulders.

"I missed you at lunch," Minerva said after a moment of comfortable silence.

"Thanks to the detention my fa-cousin earned himself today I had no time for lunch or else I'd have to delay my paperwork until Monday and honestly I doubt I'll want to do it after our mission." Harry said, glad he had been able to stop himself from saying 'my father' just in time.

"Still, it wasn't quite as entertaining as when you were there, I swear the first years almost talk normally without looking at the head table every two seconds when the scary Auror isn't there." Minerva said grinning and Harry send her a playful glare.

"Not you too, I'm not scary and I never did anything to justify being scared of me!" Harry grumbled and Minerva chuckled lightly.

"Well maybe it's the big scar across your face and the fact that you rarely smile in public, making a quite good impression of a grumpy Auror."

"Hey! I'm not grumpy and I often smile!" Minerva arched one of her eyebrows and Harry sighed, "Okay I don't smile that often," the eyebrow only slide higher, "Fine, I rarely smile in public. But in defence of my scar, I was told that witches liked them, so no judgement here!"

"That's right we do, but I can assure you I don't like you only because of your scar."

"What a relief." he answered and Minerva grinned.

"I know, it's the beard that sealed the deal for you."

"You are evil," Harry grumbled in a mocked offended tone and pulled her even closer. "I wanted to take you out tonight but maybe I'll ask Aurora instead."

"Oh really? Then be my guest, I'd love it when the two of you would get a long better." Minerva said smiling sweetly knowing very well that he had bluffed. It wasn't that he didn't like his former Astronomy Professor, it was quite the opposite in fact, but as he had never been close to her he hadn't known what to expect of her at first.

What Harry certainly hadn't expected was the sarcastic, slightly foul-mouthed and free-spirited witch he came to know, he still had no clue how Minerva and Aurora ended up as best friends, as they were quite the contrast to each other. Though he liked her, his and Aurora's communication consisted mostly of bantering and debating, usually ending in insulting each other. Of course it was always the other one that started it and Minerva more than once dared to hex them both if they wouldn't stop.

Narrowing his eyes at her Harry sighed, "Alright, you won, I only bluffed, I'd rather go out with Silvanus than that astro fraud you call friend." the black haired witch rolled her eyes as answer.

"When will we go?" she asked instead changing the subject back to their planned Date and Harry looked at his watch.

"Its shortly after six, the detention of James will only take half an hour, can you be ready at seven in front of the gate?" he asked and Minerva smiled at him.

"Of course."

"Oh and before I forget, dress in a Muggle way, I want to take you somewhere nice, not into the Leaky Cauldron." for a moment she looked puzzled but then nodded.

"Alright, see you later." with a final sweet kiss she walked out of his office as elegant as always and left a happy Harry behind.

Only five minutes later James arrived. "Hello." he said shortly and Harry looked up from the papers he was just grading.

"Good evening, I must say I didn't expect you to be early, take a seat, I want you write me two parchments of lines." Harry said and James merely nodded, before sitting down and taking out his quill and parchment.

"What lines should I write?"

"I will never hex and humiliate a fellow student again, especially not for fun." Harry looked at his father, but he had already begun to write without saying anything. He knew that James wouldn't take the whole half hour so they had time to talk without him getting late for his date.

Of course Harry was right, it only took James twenty five minutes to complete the lines, Harry though that was training out of years worth of detention. "Wait a minute James." he stated when his father stood and turned to walk to the door.

"So we are one first name again? _Professor_ Potter?"

"Sit down again I want to talk to you," Harry said and though he looked like he would object James sat down once more. "First I thought I would be talking to my nearly adult cousin who was in his last year in Hogwarts and a young man, not my prepubescent cousin who laughed about fart jokes. So don't Professor Potter me." quite pleased with himself Harry saw that James seemed to calm down and think about what Harry said before speaking.

"What do you want Harry?" James asked in a calmer voice as he sat down again.

"I want to know what your problem is with that Snape boy? You obviously can't stand each other even a Flobberworm could see that, but why don't you just ignore each other? You only share two classes."

"Because Snape is an evil little git! He and his friends support Voldemort." James said angrily.

"And you don't think that because he is also in love with Miss Evans and was one of her best friends has something to do with it?" James stared at him surprised.

"H-how?"

"Well first off I am an Auror, I was paid to notice little details around others, and Professor McGonagall told me that you like her and that she, to this day, refuses to go out with you." now James blushed a little. "Do you know why that is? Because I know."

"And why would that be?"

"Your immaturity is a problem, you have to grow up a little James, it is not funny to hex people in corridors and bully students! If you would have thought about your behaviour you would have noticed that it was horrible, do you think a woman likes it when a guy only handles difficult situations with his wand rather than with his brain? Show her that you have grown up, that you are mature enough to stand over your hate for Snape and be the adult of you two." Harry said and watched his father closely to see any reaction from him, but until now he was very good at hiding it away.

"She likes you too and Snape knows that too, he knows that once you grow up he'll have lost the battle over Lily, that's why he is going to provoke you every chance he gets. So ignore him and if you truly love Lily than she is more important than your pride, if he attacks you verbally walk away, if he attacks you physically then defend yourself if necessary and leave it at that. Just think, is humiliating Snape because you love the same girl more important than Lily herself?"

For a while James was still not answering, thinking about what Harry, unknowingly his own son had just told him. "You...you really think she is in love with me?" he asked quietly, without Sirius or Remus or anyone else for that matter James thought he had to impress, he was able to talk about what he was really feeling.

"Yes I do."

"Then I will do everything to have her by my side, if she wants I'll even make amens with Snape if she would only go out with me once." James answered a bit more confidently and Harry couldn't stop himself from asking.

"You really love her do you?"

"I do, with all my heart I...I would give anything to her, even my life." and there was no doubt in his voice, James truly meant what he said, unknowingly doing exactly what he just said in four years.

"Then show her, who knows how much time you two have, don't waste anymore time James." Harry said and James nodded before getting up.

"I will," with that he turned to leave but stopped at the door and turned around once more, "Harry?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you and I really mean that." Harry smiled.

"Any time James, any time."

* * *

As the talk with his father had taken a little bit more time than Harry had planned, he had to run down towards the Gate as he also had to change from his robes into a Muggle suit. So that nobody noticed him he disillusioned himself again, not for the first time missing his invisibility cloak, and hurried to the agreed meeting point.

Though when he arrived and removed the charm from himself he saw that he was the first to arrive despite already being a little late. When he turned towards the gate and checked the time, Harry somehow felt watched and turned around again, what he saw made his mouth fall open.

There, in a stunning dress and walking towards him was Minerva. The dress was dark green with a high neck and three quarter sleeves made out of lace and the top hugged her figure nicely while the bottom of the dress was flowing down to her feet. She wore some light make up and had her hair pinned up but not in a bun. All in all she looked breath taking.

"I- wow, you look gorgeous Minerva." Harry said as he walked closer.

"Thank you, you look quite handsome yourself...it turned out to be more difficult to find something than I had thought, I had to lend this from Ro, I'm glad you like it." she said and when she passed Harry, showing her back side to him, he had to swallow as he saw the back neckline that exposed most of her back.

"It doesn't matter what you wear you'll always look beautiful to me." Harry said when he held out his arm which she took smiling.

"Well thank you, but what if I'm old? You know, grey hair and wrinkles, will you still think I'm beautiful?"

"Of course I will." Harry said and then raised his wand to open the gate.

"Will you tell me where we'll be going?" she asked when they stepped outside the grounds.

"That my dear, is a surprise." Harry told her before he leaned down to lay is lips on hers for a gentle kiss. Taking the chance he apparated them to London, only in a dark alleyway one street away from the restaurant. It was one of his favourite back in his old time and the only good place he knew already existed in this time.

"Follow me Mylady." he said and held out his arm for her and Minerva took it, chuckling and shaking her head. When they arrived in the elegant restaurant Minerva couldn't help but being slight impressed, not only with Harry, who had chosen a wonderful restaurant, but with the Muggles who had build this lovely place without magic.

Only five minutes later the two of them were seated at their table, while tasteful music was played by a live band not far away beside a dance floor, on which a few couples were dancing.

"Now, as I had no time for lunch today, I ask you now; how was your day?" Harry asked as they waited on their drinks.

"Quite okay actually, Mr. Roberts from Hufflepuff is natural in transfiguration, I don't know how he can do so much being only a second year, when some third or even fourth years can't manage what he does." Minerva explained and then they were talking about Transfiguration, Defence Against Dark Arts, their time in school and getting to know each other even better.

When the two of them had finished their dessert and Harry thought about paying, as it was already shortly before ten, the band started to play a song he liked and following an inner impulse he got up and held his hand out to Minerva.

"Would you like to dance with me?" the moment of confusion was quickly gone and she took his hand.

"I'd love to." with that they made their way over to the dance floor and started to dance blending in perfectly with everyone else, as Harry held her in his arms a question popped up in his head he had wanted to as her since his fourth school year.

"Who taught you to dance?" he asked as they danced slowly to the song, their bodies close together. Minerva gave a short laugh.

"Why? Is it that bad?"

"No, not at all, I only wondered." he answered honestly.

"My grandmother on my fathers side taught me, she loved dancing, but as she never had a daughter to teach dancing to, she taught me, and you Professor Potter?"

"Well, a great woman tried to teach me, but I was not one bit interested in it until I found music as my way of relaxing. When a friend of mine got married I asked again if she could teach me and she did." Harry told her, indeed Minerva herself had taught him to dance when Ron and Hermione were getting married, with Hermione telling him two weeks before the wedding that she wished to dance with him.

"She did a good job." Minerva said and Harry chuckled.

"Oh she did, even though she almost gave up on me, I was a tough case."

"I can imagine." she then stood on her toes to kiss him, though after a moment Harry already leaned down so they could kiss properly. In that moment he wanted time to stand still, in this small moment everything was perfect, like it had rarely been in his life.

"I wish this night would never end." Minerva whispered to him when they parted a while later, still standing as close as possible while dancing.

"I wish so too." Harry answered and maybe he wished for time to stand still, because he knew, deep down, something bad was going to happen. It always was when he was happy.

* * *

 **Hello my lovely readers!**

 **I hope you enjoyed the new chapter and the tiny cliffhanger! If you did than please leave a review and tell me what you think of the story or chapter.**

 **Also a big thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed and favourite the story, you are awesome!**

 **Patti**


	6. Mission

Mission

"Alright, you know the plan?" Harry asked for the third time in the last twenty minutes as he and Minerva prepared for their mission in her office Friday night. Dumbledore had discussed the plan with them and then left an hour ago, though Harry knew that he was an idiot for being so nervous and also overprotective of her, he really couldn't help it.

"Harry, don't force me to hex you." Minerva hissed at him while putting on her boots. He did as he was told and shut up, behind him he heard a chuckle and glared at Aurora over his shoulder who sat in Minervas chair and had her legs on her friends desk. Harry then turned his eyes back on Minerva, who just stood, and admired her looks, even in boots, dark trousers and a simple black jacked over which she threw her cloak she still looked stunning to him.

But what fascinated him even more about her was that they had found out they could rudimentarily communicate with each other in their animal forms. They had to touch their foreheads so it worked and more than a few words weren't possible, but it was still more than incredible they could do it, even Dumbledore had been surprised. One of them had to concentrate on a thing and then the thought would appear in the other ones mind, it wasn't like they could talk with each other it was more like they would exchange their thoughts.

He was so deep in his thoughts that he didn't realize Minerva had caught him staring and now stood in front of him. "Stop staring at me and let's go." she said seriously, but then couldn't help the smile that laid on her lips.

"Then stop looking beautiful." it wasn't the woman he fell in love with who answered him.

"Oh come on, that was way too cheesy, even for you!" Aurora said as she pulled a disgusted face at them.

"You're just jealous." Harry told her grinning.

"Of you? Ha like I need a-"

"Ro! Behave!" Minerva growled at her best friend then turned to Harry, who saw how Aurora stuck her tongue out at him.

"Let's go before you two start to duel and I have to hex some sense into both of you." she said and Harry gave her a peck on her lips, while flipping Aurora off behind Minerva's back, who then turned to her best friend, who got up from her chair and hugged Minerva.

"Stay save and come back in one piece okay?" the dark skinned witch said and Minerva smiled.

"Of course I will."

"Oi shitty glasses, take care of yourself okay?"

"No problem astro fraud, you won't get rid of me that fast." he answered using his nickname for her as she hated it more than anything when someone didn't took her astronomy seriously. With a last wave from Minerva and a wink from Harry, the two flooed to the Hogshead Pub to apparate into the forest near the Avery Mansion.

The two arrived in pouring rain, as they had to be very careful not to be seen or worse caught they had to hike up the hill the Avery Mansion stood upon. With their hoods pulled deep into their faces they walked until they reached the top of the hill and the beginning of the wards.

"We'll have to test if they have Anti Animagus charm." Harry said following Minerva's eyes towards the Mansion one could barely see between the trees.

"That's a complicated and barely unknown spell, you really think they use it?" she asked back just so loud Harry could hear her over the still pouring rain.

"Better safe than sorry, if they have it give them hell until I'm back." before she could answer he had handed her his wand and the black fox stood beside her, he jumped over the root of the tree and ran towards the house. Minerva watched the Mansion and it's surroundings intently. But nothing happened and then she saw Harry returning. Once he was back in his human form he shook his head.

"I was at the house, they don't use it, we're save to transform." he said quietly, the two of them then hid their wands by the tree as planned before turning into their respective animal. They had agreed not to take any risk to be caught and as wards could be detected they decided to stay in their Animagus forms the whole mission.

They watched the Mansion almost the whole night, if they would try something they would use the natural cover of the night for it, but not much happened, Orlando Avery checking the wards three times had been the only thing happening. Still, it hadn't been useless, because of their watch they now knew they could get inside through a window on the second floor. It was perfect because it laid in a dead angle and if somebody wasn't looking straight up nobody would see them enter.

Deep in his thoughts Harry was a little startled when he sensed the movement next to him, but just a moment later he relaxed when he saw it was only Minerva who had curled up into a ball on the forest floor. Now his thoughts wandered to her, Harry never had the chance to get a closer look at her cat from in his old time, so, to him, the only thing different were the missing marks from the spectacles she had used then. He had never noticed the unique and beautiful fur pattern she had, the only exception to this being her belly that was of a pure white, nor the eyes that practically screamed Minerva at him. Even in her animal from she managed to enchant him.

Harry couldn't believe his luck in finding her, everyday he found something knew about her, from the way she loved to sleep in on Sundays, sleeping in meaning to get up at half past eight, how she found even the tiniest strand of her hair to twirl in her fingers when she was deep in thoughts, or how she curled up on her couch and was lost to the world when she read a book. And every single one of these little things Harry learned about Minerva made him fall for her even more.

Looking at her as she tried to fall asleep, he had insisted on taking a watch, Harry saw how her body trembled. Even their Animagus forms couldn't help them entirely against the cold weather, even though they were already less affected by it than humans, still, big rain drops that were falling down on them and the cold wind made things only worse. For Minerva beside him it must have been even colder than for him, as his fur was thicker than hers.

In the next moment he had made a decision and laid next to her, so she was huddled against him, Harry's larger form allowed him to shield Minerva of most of the wind and his tail came around her to give her even more warmth. Slightly pleased with himself he felt how Minerva moved even closer so their bodies were pressed together and purred softly, in response Harry ever so gently bumped his snout against the side of her face, meaning it like a good night kiss. He would continue to take watch the whole night to make sure nothing would happen and only fell asleep when the sun had come up.

* * *

When Harry awoke the sun was already high up in the sky suggesting it was still before noon, as the raining had stopped in the morning the temperatures had gone up a little but were still far from pleasant. The second thing Harry noticed was the warm body pressed against his own, looking down he saw the tabby cat form of his beloved. He leaned down to brush his snout against the side of her face, waking her up. Minerva moved a little to wake her limbs and then slid her body against his purring softly again, he answered with burying his face in the fur on her neck.

The two of them were surely quite a sight to see, if anybody would find them now, a cat and a fox cuddling in a forest they wouldn't believe their eyes, it sounded like an old tale. Harry then made use of their connection and put his forehead against Minerva's before he thought of 'food' only a moment later came her answer, 'no'. Nodding slightly Harry got up and stretched his limbs before the two started their mission, observing the people inside the home once more and patrolling around the house so nothing would happen without them not knowing.

Until night fall and the beginning of the dangerous part of their mission nothing happened, beside Harry seeing how Orlando hid several dark objects, one of them looking a lot like the Hand of Glory he had seen in Borgin and Burke's which would later be purchased by Draco Malfoy. At least now when they wouldn't find out anything useful in the meeting he could leave an anonymous tip at the Auror office to search the house and still send Avery to Azkaban and ruin his reputation.

Still at the moment Harry had bigger problems, with every minute the meeting got closer, he grew more nervous. They had agreed that it would be less suspicious if a stray cat was seen in the house then a rare black fox, so it would be Minerva's job to go inside and actually spy. Even though he knew she was one of the, if not the, most powerful witch of their age, it still didn't mean he liked it, that the woman he loved was putting herself in such great danger, after all she wouldn't have her wand with her. If she was caught and had to escape fast, her wand could get in her way and if she lost it, it would be even worse.

Minerva would go to the tree by the house and climb on it, from there she would get inside the house and hide. Harry was going to stay with their wands and if things took for a worse he would turn back and attack from the woods, hopefully distracting the meeting Death Eaters long enough from Minerva so she could get out and to where he was. Then, if necessary they would fight them together until they could apparate back to Hogsmeade.

As the two met by the tree they had slept underneath Minerva once again slid her body against his and began to purr, Harry laid his head over her shoulder and pulled her against him like in a hug, for a moment neither of them moved, simply enjoying the contact. Then his beloved gently pressed her forehead against his and Harry concentrated on the one thing he wanted her to be, 'Careful' he thought and almost immediately got an answer. 'Always' with that Minerva turned around and disappeared behind the trees, when Harry reached the end of the trees he just saw her climbing up the tree, amazed how she made it look elegant even now. Before Harry could think anything else he saw how she turned her head and their eyes met for a short moment before she jumped and landed on the small windowsill, seconds later she had vanished inside the house.

* * *

Upon her entrance Minerva did not move one muscle as she scanned the room she was in, it was a dark cold hallway, thanks to the feline senses she new that at the moment she was alone. Looking up and down the hallway she saw doors leading to rooms and to her left there was the staircase, approaching it she made extra sure not to make any sound. Even though she had fought Death Eaters before she had never been in such a dangerous situation and had not even her wand with her, truth be told this was what had been the only thing she had a bad feeling about.

Minerva arrived downstairs where old chandeliers sent out a dark light, this house was just like every child imagined the house of a dark wizards, old, dark, with strange old paintings and the unmistakeable evil lingering in the air. Scanning the area she quickly slipped through a door that was slightly ajar and turned out to be leading to the salon, sensing movement behind her she quickly hid under the old drawer next to the door, only a few moments later the feet of a house elf walked past her.

"The drink Master Avery wished for." the elf said in a high, jet hoarse voice.

"Prepare the dining room and tell me when the others arrive Gibly." Orlando Avery simply answered as he probably took the offered drink and return to whatever he had been doing, not acknowledging the elf further.

"Of course Master!" the elf answered and walked back out of the room while Avery took a sip of his drink before putting it aside rather carelessly. Minerva took a couple of deep breaths to clam herself down a little, all she had to do was listen and get out of that blasted house once the Death Eaters had left.

The sound of heels clicking on the ground filled the room as a woman moved from one of the windows towards Orlando and Minerva's heart started to beat faster. She hadn't even noticed the woman until she moved.

"Laurine, go upstairs and get Francis."

"Don't you think he is to young to-" Laurine Avery tried to argue the attending of her only son at a Death Eater meeting, but was harshly silenced by her husband.

"He is of age and with that old enough, so do as I say Laurine. And if you're not able to sit there and stay silent as you're supposed to be, then don't bother with returning downstairs with Francis." Orlando growled at her. His wife did not answer and simply left the room, Minerva saw this as her chance to get to the dining room where she hoped she still had enough time to search for a proper hiding place. She slid out of the room a moment after Laurine, when she had made sure Orlando was still looking away. Minerva just saw her vanish up the stairs, but she didn't give the witch a second thought as she searched for the dining hall.

She found it after she had followed another short hallway and went through an open door to her left, if Minerva had remembered he layout of the manor, and she was sure she had, she was now in the room left from the frontdoor. Luckily for her the house elf was so busy he took no notice of her entrance and Minerva was able to hide herself once more under a drawer. Sooner than expected fast scurrying footsteps hurried past her and she knew that the elf had left to inform it's master of the arrival of his fellow Death Eaters.

What felt like only seconds later Avery entered the dining room with his elf, his polished dragon hide shoes walked into her view and Minerva wished for nothing more than her wand so she could end the life of this horrible man.

"Let them in, and when everyone is here you will stay away from this room until I call you or you will get severely punished."

"Yes! Master Avery, of course Master Avery." with that the elf disappeared again but. The door was opened only seconds later and several wizards entered, all clad in long black robes.

"Welcome my confederates, have a seat!" Avery said as more and more Death Eaters arrived. Unknown to them Minerva listened closely, already trying to identify some of them but they were all talking at the same time so it was hard for her to make out any particular voice.

"Please gentlemen, take a seat and let's begin, I know some still have to arrive but we can't wait for them all night long." Avery's voice boomed through the dining room and the Death Eaters all walked to the table to take a seat.

"Let's begin, Jones did you complete your mission?" Avery said in a demanding voice.

"It was easier than expected and everything is working like we planned. I already know more than we thought I would, thanks to the stupidity of those blood traitors and Mudbloods I can manipulate the Floo Network to our benefits." Jones answered quickly and pleased murmur spread through the room. _'Jones; Floo Network Office Death Eater.'_ Minerva thought.

"Beck." Orlando said.

"My news aren't that good, Potter has accepted the post as the new DADA teacher. We tried to get him in his flat but it was already empty when we got there that filthy Mudblood lover got away for now. But he won't stay at that school forever, we'll be there when he leaves."

"The Dark Lord won't be pleased to hear you didn't kill him, make sure that this changes, Potter will curse the day he didn't join our ranks." _'They are after Harry, he needs to be careful'_

Then suddenly the door opened once more and two other figures walked inside. "Ahh, Dawling and Fenrir how nice that you also decided to join us, I thought you wouldn't honour us with your presence." Avery said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, he didn't seem to happy about them being here.

"Thank you for your kind words, it's not like my pack has been doing most of the dirty work for you." one of the newcomers said in a deep rasping voice.

"Watch your tongue, just because you're a werewolf doesn't mean I can't or won't make you sit on the ground like a common dog." upon hearing this fear spread in Minervas body and her heart threatened to jump out of her chest, they had never expected a werewolf under You Know Who's followers.

"Do that and I'll eat your damn cat as an appetiser Avery." _'No, he can't mean-'_

"What in Merlin's beard are you talking about? I don't have a cat."

"Then what's a cat doing under your drawer?" the werewolf said and for a moment nobody spoke, nobody even moved. _'I have to get out of here'_ just when she thought this, a non-verbal spell sent the drawer flying away and exposed her to the eyes of over a dozen Death Eaters, Minerva ran for the door but she was too late as someone had already locked it and without her wand she had no chance to flee.

Minerva pressed herself against the door, her eyes darting to everyone standing in front of her. Closest to her were the werewolf Fenrir, who was tall and scarily looked like a wolf even in his human form and a young wizard, probably Dawling, who's hand reached out to grab her, but she hissed and clawed at him. As her claws scratched his hand he cursed and pulled it back.

"Bloody hell- I'll!" the wizard already pulled his wand but the gruesome voice of Fenrir held him back.

"Wait...something is off about that cat." the werewolf said and sniffed the air, Minerva had never been that scared in her life, she knew he could smell that she wasn't a normal cat! Hadn't Harry heard or seen the commotion? Did he know that the mission had taken a deadly turn, she begged to everything and anyone that he was already planning to get her out.

Minerva flinched when Fenrir started to laugh, a laugh that sent shivers of fear through Minerva's whole body. "Ha, I'm supposed to be the stupid one here? Who had an Animagus in his house for who knows how long and didn't even know about it?"

"What?" heads turned to the owner of the mansion who was furious. _'Oh Merlin Harry where are you? I need your help!'_ Minerva thought desperately.

"Hold it over the table and lets see who...dared to sneak inside my home." Orlando said and everyone who knew him, knew that even though his voice was calm that he was beyond angry. If Harry wouldn't do something she would certainly die today, but not before they had tortured every last bit information out of her.

"Revelio Animagi!" Avery hissed when Fenrir held Minerva over the dining table and immediately she felt how she was forced out of her cat and back into her human form. In an instant she tried to roll off the table but several hands grabbed her, and pinned her to the wooden surface of the table.

"Well, well, well, look what we have here...I don't think that you were invited, Professor McGonagall." Avery said with a sinister smile on his thin lips as he stared down at her. "So tell us what you were doing here and why you didn't send word of you attending our, I must say, private meeting?" but the witch didn't answer, she didn't even move one muscle, it was pointless anyway, even though she was an excellent duellist she wouldn't stand a chance against fourteen Death Eaters without a wand.

"No? You won't answer on your own? Then be my guest let's do it the hard way. Crucio!" he pointed his wand at her and only a second later Minerva's screams filled the dining room, it felt like she was skinned alive with a knife made of acid. After visibly enjoying her screams of pain he lifted the curse from her.

"Let's try again, what did you hear?" breathing heavily Minerva still didn't speak one word.

"Tell me!" Avery yelled and once again put her under the torture curse this time even longer.

"Why don't we just summon the Dark Lord?" a Death Eater asked but Avery shook his head at this.

"This won't end good for me or any of you, neither of us notice of her and he would punish us no matter what. But what if she didn't hear anything? I'd rather not contact the Dark Lord for nothing!" Orlando answered the question, his own fear of his master's revenge shone in his eyes for a moment before turning his eyes back on the caught witch.

"Just give up already when can play this game all night long and believe me you'll eventually break...everyone does and when you break...let's say it'll be most joyous to watch for us." he said and for the third time Minerva was living though the greatest pain imaginable.

"Nothing! I heard nothing." she said while gasping for air and flinched when Avery pointed his wand at her again.

"You better don't lie to me!"

"No I only-"

"Liar." he raised his wand once more.

"No! Plea- Ahhh." Minerva writhed in pain on the table she wanted it to stop, no matter how but she just begged for the pain to end. This time she was so long under the curse that Minerva thought she would lose her mind because of the pain. When finally, what felt like hours to her, he stopped the curse, Minerva curled as much into a ball as she could and tears ran down her face. Now the pain didn't immediately subside once the curse was removed but lingered on her and only faded slowly.

"Hm...you know what? I guess it won't matter what you heard anyway, you won't live to tell anyone. But more importantly what do you know about Dumbledore's plans? Tell me." he growled the last words at her and grabbed her throat.

"I can't...I don't know his plans." Minerva said which was partly true, she didn't know much of Dumbledore's plans because of possible situations like this, the only thing she could tell was names of members of the Order.

"And here I thought you were a clever witch. You'll tell me everything you know and who is with you!"

"No." Minerva gasped once more her horrible screams echoed through the room and for the first time she wished she would die, right here, right now, just so the pain would end. This went on and on ' _Oh_ _Harry please help me...'_ the black haired witch thought as the last curse had been finally stopped and she could caught her breath again, not knowing how long she could endure before she would actually break.

"Hm, it seems we won't come far this way, let's try something else." he didn't even ask her a question when he once again raised his wand, Minerva flinched already expecting the pain, but what happened was that with a quick mumble he had cut of her cloak and jacked leaving her in her red shirt. Weakly Minerva raised her arms and tired to fight of his hands that had grabbed her shirt, but she just as well could have stroked over his hands, so weak was her attempt.

"Don't! No-" Minerva tried but Avery already ripped it open causing the others around them to hoot and making obscene gestures and comments as she lay before them her bra being the only clothing on her upper body. Where was Harry? What had they done to him, why wasn't he helping her? The mere thought that maybe he was deadly injured or already dead made her heart clench in a pain even worse than the torture.

"If you don't speak now I will every one of them have their way with you." Minerva knew he wasn't bluffing he would let them rape her, she couldn't help but feel even greater fear and against all her will she felt tears sliding down her cheeks. Minerva couldn't betray everyone she knew, people who were her friends, her family and then she though once more of Harry. No, no matter what they did to her she wouldn't betray them!

Taking her silence as an answer Avery turned away.

"Fenrir." Minerva had no time to react when the huge form of Fenrir was above her and calloused hands grabbed her, one laid on her throat pressed her head on the table and made it nearly impossible to breathe, the other roamed over her chest and beside fear disgust began to well inside her. Against her will she began to tremble under Fenrir's hands and flinched as he leaned down and licked over her neck, the hand on her throat tightened and his long nails nearly cut into her skin.

"Mmm you taste so good, I'll highly enjoy drinking your blood tonight." He growled in her ear and Minerva closed her eyes. She finally gave in to the exhaustion of the torture, she even embraced it as everything was better than what was about to happen to her. Her last thought was of Harry, Minerva hoped he was alive, she didn't dare to hope he would come and save her but she hoped that, if only in an illusion created by her exhaustion, she could be with the man she loved with all her heart.

Before her world turned completely black, a deafening blast send her flying through the air, Fenrir was flung off of her, but before Minerva hit the ground she was already surrounded by comforting darkness and silence.

* * *

 **Hello again my dear readers!**

 **I hoped you liked the chapter even if it was delayed!**

 **So what happened that Harry didn't help Minerva? Was he already hurt before they caught Minerva? Is there maybe someone under the Death Eaters who isn't all loyal to Voldemort?**

 **You will find out in the next chapter!**

 **I apologize for the delay of the chapter but there was much going on and I got a puppy and whoa they are a little bit more work than expected but I'm super happy and the next chapter won't take so long!**

 **Please leave a review and a big thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, favourite and followed the story! :)**

 **Until next time**

 **Patti**


	7. Aftermath

Aftermath

Harry positioned himself so, that he could see the entrance to the manor and the tree at the same time, he knew, at least until the meeting started, that Minerva was save. Harry also knew she could fight well, even more than well, she was one of, if not the most powerful witch of their time.

Still when the first Death Eaters arrived he couldn't help but tense and watch the Manor even closer, so he wouldn't miss even the smallest thing going on. If Harry only saw the slightest indicator that something was not alright and that Minerva was in danger he would give them hell. When the last Death Eaters had arrived, Harry retreated back to the tree they had slept and hid their wands under and from which he had a better sight on the dining room where the Death Eaters had gathered.

For nearly fifteen minutes nothing out of the ordinary happen, but suddenly his sight began to blur, Harry shook his head thinking it was because of the intense staring, but it wouldn't go away. Harry blinked and then a nearly unbearable pain formed in his head, so strong that he could only compare it to the first time Voldemort had touched him on the Little Hangelton Graveyard. The pain forced him to change back into his human form and a moment later Harry laid on the forest floor clutching his head in his hand and biting his cheeks so strong, to keep himself from screaming out loud, that he tasted blood.

And then suddenly everything was over, the pain stopped but the world around him turned black and Harry felt like he was floating in darkness, he didn't know where he was, where up and down was or if he was still in the forest at the Avery Manor.

"Happy Birthday uncle Harry!" a voice suddenly yelled. A voice he would recognize everywhere because it belonged to his nine year old godson. Harry opened his eyes and blinked against the brightness, he could barely make out the two people against the light, but even though Harry had travelled through time he knew it were Andromeda and Teddy. Harry didn't understand how that was possible, what the hell did happen? In the next moment Teddy jumped at Harry who opened his arms quickly to catch him, but the boy with the bright green hair jumped right through him.

Harry turned around and saw himself holding the boy close, "Thank you Teddy." he said and only then Harry realized that his sight was blurred again, it was like a thin veil had been draped over his face, at first he had thought it were just his eyes adapting to the light. He raised his hands and saw that he himself looked faded, so he hadn't been pulled back entirely into his old time, suddenly it hit him.

Minerva! The Death Eater meeting! He had to go back, what if something went wrong and she needed his help? Or what if it was already over and his beloved found him unconscious in the forest? What was this? What the hell had happened? Harry turned and looked around, like he was expecting to see a door that would lead him back, then he even closed his eyes hoping it would take him back but nothing happened.

He opened his eyes again and then saw how the other Harry lead Teddy and Andromeda into the living room, not knowing what else to do he followed them. When he walked through the door he couldn't believe his eyes and even though he wasn't proud of it, every thought of how to get back left his mind. Harry was instantly overwhelmed with emotions, each and everyone of his family was here, nearly all of the Weasleys, some of his old colleagues and most importantly Ron and Hermione who, to his honest surprise, had another baby.

Neville had his arm wrapped around Luna who had put her own hand on her slightly bulging belly and both wore the happiest smiles Harry had ever seen on their faces. Everyone he loved and held dear was here and the wound of loosing all of this, of them, which he had patched up so carefully mostly with Minerva's help dared to tear open once more. Seeing them all again made him once again feel ripped in half, here were his best friends, the people who had become his family, had fought side by side with him in a war.

But in the past there was Minerva, who he really loved with all his heart, maybe even more than Ron and Hermione, he really had never felt like that with anyone else. Of course there also were his parents, Sirius, Remus, Albus, Fred, Tonks, Moody, people he had loved and lost and Harry had not the smallest idea of what to do right now. He had never felt so ripped in two in his life.

Then there was a knock on the front door and the other Harry, who had been talking with Arthur, left the room to greet whoever stood at the door. Harry walked over to Ron and Hermione, Rose was sitting on her fathers lap and offered her little brother a piece of her cake, Hermione held her son securely in her arms and he saw the pure happiness in all of their eyes. Though he knew he still existed here, that they had no idea that there was another him in the past, Harry somehow wished they would miss him as much as he missed them.

"Look who is honouring us, and especially me, with her presence!" other Harry exclaimed loud with a big smile on his face when he entered the room once more, behind him to everyone's surprise, judging their faces, was Minerva. But nobody was more surprised than Harry himself, when he once again saw the face of his Transfiguration Professor, a face which had become so familiar to him, even though it looked different.

He almost forgot how she looked, as when he now though of her, it was her younger face he came to think of, the face he came to love and know inside out. Harry stood and slowly walked over to her, now as he made himself remember her he came to the conclusion that Minerva still nearly looked the same as she did in his school time, a few more wrinkles on her skin and her hair began to turn grey. He couldn't help but think of their future, that hopefully they would grow old together.

Walking even closer to Minerva who now greeted everyone in the room, Harry reached out and laid a hand on her cheek. Suddenly Minerva and the others started to fade, trees formed in the living room and build the forest in which he had been, but what caused his blood to run cold were the horrible and painful screams echoing around. Harry flinched back and spun around to see where they were coming from and who was screaming, though his subconsciousness already told him who it was.

But as soon as he let go of Minerva the forest and the screaming disappeared. Harry whirled around once more but he was back in his old living room and everyone was having fun. Dread filled his body, it was Minerva, his Minerva back in the Avery Manor full of Death Eaters, something must have gone terribly wrong! Merlin knew how long he had been here, Harry had to get back to her, he had to save her! He had promised her that if something was happening he would come and save her, that he would come and get her out of there.

Stronger fear, fury and desperation started to rise in him when Harry thought about what they were doing to her and that he might be too late to help her. No! He had to push those thoughts away fear and panic wouldn't help him getting back, he had to focus now as he had learned. How could he get back? The answer to this question would be easier to find when Harry knew how the hell he had ended up here in the first place.

He had touched Minerva and got a glimpse of her in the past, maybe if he touched his other self here then he would go back. He walked over and reached out, but Harry's hand stopped mere inches from the shoulder of his other self, who was currently discussing the latest Quidditch match results with Ron and George.

What if he touched this Harry and wouldn't go back to his body in the past? What if he would end up back in this self, forever stuck in this body, in this time. What would happen with Minerva? Would this have any effects on her future self? Would she disappear, be erased from the minds of everyone who knew her, if she died in the past? No, he couldn't even think about that. Backing away from the other Harry, he looked at the future version of the woman he came to love with all his heart. He couldn't let her down! He loved her, he had to go back, he wouldn't let her get tortured to death with her last thought being the question why he hadn't saved her.

The only thought that this was, what could actually happen at this very moment made him angrier than he had ever been, even more angrier than the time when Sirius had died. He walked close to the Minerva here and did the only thing that came to his mind, he wrapped his arms around her, the world already started to fade, and then pressed his lips to Minerva's. Harry felt her vanishing in his arms, the laughter disappeared and was once more replaced by the screaming of his beloved.

His sight blacked for a moment and then he felt himself returning to his human body on the forest floor. As soon as he regained the control over his limps he got up, Harry turned to the house and saw two Death Eaters patrolling it, inside behind the window of the dining hall, which he had watched earlier, he saw more silhouettes of Death Eaters. At the moment they were even darker against the flickering white light of the torture curse and the reason for Minerva's screams. Hot fury spread in Harry like a fire, he would hurt them for this, he would hunt each and everyone of them down should one escape his revenge he was about to expose them to.

With ease he stunned the two Death Eaters who had just turned away from each other wands raised as one was on his way to search the forest. Quickly he turned back in his fox form grabbed his and Minerva's wand and ran towards the manor, turning back into his human form once he was at the entrance where he unlocked the front door. Harry then leaned around the corner of the manor and aimed at the wall behind which the Death Eaters were.

 _'Bombarda Maxima!'_ he thought and half of the wall exploded. Using the surprise moment Harry rand inside and to the dining hall, inside he found over a dozen Death Eaters, almost all had been flung through the room, those who had stood too close to the wall had been effected most, the left arm of one had been blasted off while another Death Eater, who had probably leaned against the wall, had been shredded to pieces. But Harry didn't care, his eyes were scanning the room for his loved one. Before he could make her out though, the few men who hadn't been affected greatly by the blast had spotted him and sent the curses his way.

Harry ducked and fired spells of his own all while trying to find Minerva. A cutting curse grazed his shoulder and his own blood sprayed his face but he ignored the pain and continued to fight them. Harry ducked behind a shelf and then ran further into the room, he send one of his opponents flying through the hole in the wall and punched another one hard in the face. Where was Minerva? The worry dared to overwhelm him when he didn't see her anywhere. Suddenly he was flung off the ground and crashed into the opposite wall, an immediately following blasting curse missed him only by a few feet and the shock wave caused some of his ribs to break, a rain of splinters cut in his skin while the heat burned his left arm and part of his side.

The spell had blown Harry further to the right and luckily for him, he landed behind one half of the tabel, fighting against the pain he already moved to fight again but then stopped in the motion. Everything around him came to a halt when he saw the woman he loved lying in front of him, she was unconscious and was bleeding from minor wounds, but what made his imagination run wild was her nearly naked torso. Rage pulsed through his veins and he had never felt such hate and fury, Harry's mind went blank, the only thing he had in his mind was to hurt them, to inflict as much pain on them as he could.

He sent a fire blast around the room to keep the approaching Death Eaters away who where now throwing every curse and hex at him they knew, and he didn't even take notice of all the killing curses. Another cutting curse hit him in the side, but Harry was so full of rage and magic that he didn't notice the pain, the caster of the spell was killed when a particular strong Sectumsempra nearly cut him in half. Harry then send another bombarda towards the Death Eaters, to clear their escape way.

He picked the still unconscious Minerva up and got out of the manor as fast as possible. But Harry was only halfway across the lawn to the forest before spells came flying around him once more. He didn't know what spell hit him, but suddenly he was flying through the air again, he let go of his beloved so he wouldn't hurt her in landing on top of her. Harry hit the ground so hard he bounced right back off and used the motion to stand back up, firing curses at the Death Eaters. As he did so Harry made his way back to Minerva's body and once he reached her he send off another fire blast at their attackers so he could gather his lover once again in his arms and made a run for the end of the wards.

"Don't let them escape!" somebody screamed, but Harry was almost there, only a few more steps, Harry had to get them out of here! And just when he was about to disapparate he heard one of the Death Eaters shout "Ossox!" and felt how the curse broke the bones in his right leg. Still it had been to late, because Harry already apparated away.

They landed in front of the Hogwarts Gate, though Harry knew that, until they weren't inside the wards, they weren't save. But the apparation had been too much for Harry's battered body, with his last bit of strength he forced himself to carry Minerva into safety. Pain exploded in his body as the magic, adrenalin and anger left him. Harry knew if he'd break down now, they both were domed. He opened the Gate and walked through, it shut behind him just when he hear the familiar popping of several apparations, and saw Death Eaters in front of the Gate. For a short while they tried to get inside but the wards protected them and quickly as they had come, they disappeared again.

Knowing they were save Harry collapsed to his knees, his sight blurred and he knew he would be gone soon. He'd let Minerva slide from his arms to the ground and raised his wand once more.

"Expecto Patronum." his stag stood in front of them "Tell Albus...Help...Gate." with his last movement he send the patronus of and then fell forward and knew no more.

* * *

There was darkness around him, but it was a comfortable if not soothing one, he laid somewhere soft and then Harry felt how delicate and soft hands caressed his face and the fingers ran through his hair. Then he heard a familiar giggle and knew it was Minerva who was near him, she whispered something to him, but he couldn't understand the words. Harry only knew that he loved whatever she told him and that he could spend eternity like this, it didn't matter to him as long as Minerva was with him.

Following a sudden urge he opened his eyes and saw tree branches full of green leafs, through which the sun shone and which were slightly moving with the breeze. Then the face of his beloved appeared before him and she was smiling at him though she was upside down. Only then Harry realized that he was lying on soft grass and that his head was pillowed on Minerva's lap.

"Hey there sleepy head." Minerva murmured amused and Harry returned her smile.

"I could get used to see your face when I wake up." Harry said and reached out his hand to take hers.

"Is that so? Well, I think we can do something about that." she answered. Suddenly Harry could hear screams of pain and saw the unconscious and battered body of Minerva in front of him. But in the next moment everything was back to the peaceful surrounding.

"I am only dreaming aren't I." it was more like a statement than a question, Harry knew this wasn't real, their real selves were probably fighting for their lives.

"Yes, but it's a good dream isn't it?"

"One of the best I ever had...but I'm sorry...I'm so sorry I wasn't there to protect you Mina, please forgive me." Harry said and watched how Minerva leaned down to lay her lips on his.

"There is nothing you need forgiveness for Harry. You saved me." she whispered once they parted.

"But-"

"Shh," with that she kissed him once more, "You have to wake up now Harry."

"I don't want to, not yet." he answered her honestly and laid his hand on the side of her face, Minerva mirrored his movement in laying her own hand over his and closed her eyes.

"But you have to and it's time for you to wake up, dreams can't last forever." and when their lips met for their last kiss, Harry was once again surrounded by darkness and nothingness.

* * *

When he regained the feeling in body once more, he felt that he was lying somewhere comfortable and warm. Harry heard distant voices but they were still too far away to understand what exactly was being said and by whom. Remembering the dream and what had happened before he didn't want to open his eyes. As long as he laid here unknowing of his and Minerva's fate he could pretend that everything was alright, but all too soon his mind began to create several horrible scenarios each leaving Minerva either dead, fatally injured or driven insane like Frank and Alice Longbottom had been.

So after a while Harry decided it was time to wake up and he opened his eyes, he stared up at a white ceiling, which was, due to the bright light and the lack of his glasses blurred. After blinking a few times some of the blurriness went away, then Harry was able to make out where he was, the Hospital Wing. Slowly he tried to move each arm and leg and to his relief he was able to move all of them, though he had a tight feeling on his left arm, but a quick glance down told him that his shoulder and his complete left arm were heavily bandaged and between some of them he could see a thick orange paste.

Turning his head once more, Harry saw that nearly the whole hospital Wing was empty, except for a bed across from him, around which the curtains had been drawn, so he didn't know if it was Minerva or a student laying there. The voices he had heard earlier had disappeared, then the doors to the hospital wing opened and fast steps entered, turning his head slightly he was met by the sight of a worried and upset looking Dumbledore.

"Albus." Harry said, his voice was hoarse and weak but it had been enough to make the old wizard turn his head to him.

"Harry! Than Merlin you're awake." the headmaster said and hurried over to him.

"Albus where- where is Minerva? Is she-?" Harry forced himself to ask as Albus handed him something to drink, his voice already giving away as it hadn't been used in a while.

"She is alive, though I cannot say how exactly she has not woken up jet and Poppy refuses to wake her. She has been through much, though her wounds seem to be worse on her mind than her body." Albus answered and as he did so he looked to the bed across from him. Harry immediately moved to sit up, though his ribs despite their healing still felt tender and not speaking of the pain in his left side and arm. Dumbledore quickly, jet firmly, pushed him back on the bed.

"Don't Harry you still need to recover, you have been severely injured."

"No what I need is to see her!" Harry argued back but Albus wouldn't let him move.

"What happened Harry?" the older wizard asked and set some privacy charms around them.

"I don't know...everything went like we planed it, and then something strange happened, something I can't really explain." Harry said and then thought about how he could possibly try and explain what had happened.

"I lost consciousness and suddenly I was back in the future. Well not really it was like I was stuck in between the times. I could see and hear everything the others did in my time, but they couldn't see or hear me. I tried to go back I did but then...there was everyone I lost and loved, for a moment I forgot to try and find a way back. Then future Minerva arrived and when I touched her I partly went back to the forest...I heard Minerva scream, I don't know how long I have been gone or how they found her." he told Albus who was listening closely.

"Still, once I let go of Minerva I was back with the others in the future. I didn't know what to do! I only got back when I hugged and well...kissed Minerva. Once I was back I fought the Death Eaters...when I saw what they had done to her to the woman- I lost control. We barely escaped them because of me." here Harry ended and looked at Albus who looked thoughtful. "What happened to me?"

The older wizard gave a ling sigh, "I have to be honest with you Harry, I have no idea what happened, there are only a handful of wizards who have travelled in time and none of them lived to tell all of their experiences. The whole concept of time travel is still something not greatly explored, but I think that what ever those two Unspeakables did to you wasn't as fool proofed as they thought. I will investigate further into this Harry." Albus told him and Harry nodded slowly.

"But I also have to ask you not to blame yourself for what happened, it was something far out of your control and it is because of you, that you managed to save Minerva from a much more horrible fate than Death. You fought alone against over a dozen of Voldemort's followers and won, even though you barely survived it and apparated you and Minerva out of danger. It is thanks to you, that the woman, and I hope I'm not greatly mistaken, you care for deeply and maybe even love survived." Dumbledore said and was quiet for a while.

"Like I said I don't you enough about time travel, but I do think that it wasn't a coincidence, that it was being close and kissing Minerva that sent you back to her Harry." and for the first time Dumbledore smiled a bit, Harry who was still too shocked and surprised at was Albus had told him, especially that he apparently knew of his and Minerva's relationship.

"This is once again proof for me, that love is one if not the most powerful force in the world." Harry didn't answer him, though he thought that Dumbledore was right, it was the love he felt for Minerva that brought him back, even though he hadn't told her how much he really cared for her. But then another thought entered his mind, what was he supposed to say to her once she woke up? And to the others?

"Albus what am I supposed to tell her when she wakes up? What had kept me from fulfilling my promise to her to save her? And to everyone else?"

"I think the best would be to tell them you have been caught by one of the Death Eaters who attacked you from behind." Harry nodded in agreement.

"What happened after we arrived here? Have the Death Eaters been caught? How long have I been out?"

"You have been unconscious for a little over two day, though if Poppy hadn't insisted on giving you a sleeping potion to make sure you heal properly before leaving her care sooner than you should, which she was by the way, sure would happen. To your other questions, when I received your patronus, Leonard, Aurora and I immediately went down here to help you. I have to admit it was quite a gruesome sight, for a moment we were sure we'd been to late.

We got you to the Hospital Wing as fast as we could, and though we gave our best to hide what happened to you from the students they know. Upon our arrival in the Hospital Wing Poppy send for help from St. Mungos, as I feared for your safety in the Hospital the healers came here to help you. It turned out to be good that I ordered so because my informant in the hospital told me Death Eaters searched it for the both of you.

The healers and Poppy managed to heal you just alright, but the multiple use and long exposure of the Cruciatus curse Minerva had to endure proved to be more complicated. Only just this morning they were able to tell us that she should make a full recovery. After we brought you here and I was sure you two were alive I informed Mad-Eye. He and the Aurors immediately went there and were able to arrest seven Death Eaters, under them Orlando Avery and his son, three were dead." Albus explained to him and Harry was glad, though he wasn't sorry, that there was no accusation in Albus' voice regarding the fact that he had killed three people.

"You did not kill them out of joy Harry, it was them or you and you understandably lost your control after you saw what they did to Minerva." Harry didn't answer, because no answer was needed and it seemed like Albus thought so too. After a long moment of silence, Harry once again looked at the bed in which Minerva was laying though shielded from his eyes.

"Pleas Albus...I have to see her..." Harry said while still looking at the curtains and even though he tried to hid it, he couldn't keep the desperation out of his voice. Slightly nodding Albus removed the privacy charms around them and helped Harry getting up and then supported him when he walked slowly across the room. His heart started to beat faster in his chest and even though he had been told that she was alive and going to survive, he feared what he would see when Albus removed the curtains.

As the older wizard pulled the curtains back Harry felt both guilty and relieved. Minerva laid peacefully in the bed before them, there minor cuts on her skin, but beside that she looked like she was sleeping. Her arms rested at each side of her body on top of the blanked that covered her, Minerva's black hair was out of it's usual bun and framed her face. But the most important thing to Harry was not how she looked, but to see how her chest slowly rose and fell with each breath she took.

He nearly fell into the chair Albus had moved under him and gently took Minervas right inside his own hand. Being able to see her breathe and to feel her slightly warm skin on his was the only thing in the world that mattered to Harry. Slowly he lifted Minerva's hand to his face and pressed his lips on the back of her hand, only to hold it against his face.

"I won't leave your side until you wake up Mina...I'll be right next to you where I belong, I swear I will never break one of my promises again." Harry whispered while looking at the witch he loved with his whole body, heart and soul.

* * *

 **Hello again!**

 **I hope you liked the chapter and my idea of what happened to Harry! I would appreciate it when you would leave me a review and tell me what you think about it.**

 **Now the question is, will they find out what exactly happened to Harry? When will Minerva wake up and how is she going to react to Harry?**

 **Find out in the next chapter!**

 **I would like to thank everyone who read, favoured, followed and reviewed the story! It means really much to me!**

 **Until next time**

 **Patti**


	8. Guilt

Guilt

Harry kept to his promise and did not leave Minerva's side unless Poppy was treating his wounds, to which she insist would only be happening when he laid down on the bed next to Minerva's, which now was his as he absolutely wouldn't move further away from her. Luckily the only wounds left to treat for Poppy were the burns on his arm and side and because they were also healing fine Poppy had been able to removed the bandages so that the regrowing skin was now on display.

After his latest examination from Poppy Harry was now sitting at Minerva's bedside and held her hand in his for five hours straight. He had rarely felt so relieved than how he did at the moment, just sitting here holding her hand helped him to fight the feeling that he was to blame Minerva had been hurt. But the peace was suddenly disturbed when the doors to the Hospital Wing flew open and Aurora stood in the doorway, she paused for a moment before she hurried towards him.

"What in Merlin's name happened? You said you would protect her! She trusted you!" the Astronomy Professor said angrily and only came to a halt when she stood directly in front of Harry glaring down at him.

"Believe me, you are not half as mad at me as you should be, and not even nearly as mad as I am at myself." Harry answered calmly, this seemed to tame the woman in front of him a little as she sunk down on the mattress beside Minerva and carefully stroked over her friends cheek.

"What happened?" she asked once again but this time calmer.

"I was attacked by a Death Eater who arrived late, I have no idea how he knew I was there, or if he just saw a fox and wanted to kill it. I could duck his killing curse and turned back, then we both fired a curse and they met, I was flung against a tree and lost consciousness while he was killed. The moment I regained consciousness and saw what they were doing- I went to get Minerva out of there. I swear Aurora when I saw what they did I...I showed no mercy." They both were quiet for a while, Harry felt bad that he had to lie to the Astronomy Professor he came to like, but there was no way he could tell her the truth.

"I'm glad you are okay, and I know you did everything in your power to save her, it's just...I never expected anything to go wrong, at least not this much. I know that was naive but..." the witch trailed off and looked at Harry who nodded slowly.

"Neither did I." Harry answered her quietly and once again there was silence between them. In his thoughts Harry tried to find a way to ask the question that was burning inside him since he regained consciousness but hadn't dared to ask anyone but Aurora. "Did they rape her?" Aurora shuddered, but quickly shook her head.

"No, they examined her but at least that they didn't do to her." she answered and Harry released the breath he had unknowingly held and looked visibly calmer than before. He had feared for the worst when he saw her lying before him in the Manor, but to know they hadn't forced themselves upon her was another great relief.

"We spread the rumour the two of you were meeting up with old school friends, a small reunion if you want to call it that, and that you were attacked on the way."

"Okay sounds convincing enough, who's been teaching the last three days?" the wizard asked and looked up at his friend.

"Dumbledore has been teaching Transfiguration and I took over your DADA."

"Well it seems like I'll have to start all over again." Harry said not able to keep himself from teasing her, knowing full well what he was doing Aurora grinned and flipped him off.

"You wish shitty glasses I taught them more in three days that you did in two months."

"Sure you did." Harry mumbled sarcastically, neither of them would admit it, but they were glad they had each other at the moment. The two spend the rest of the day at Minerva's bedside, only Poppy would come by to make sure both her patients were doing fine. In the afternoon a Healer from St. Mungos arrived to help Poppy get Minerva's procedure done, which consisted of a lot of complex spell casting. Harry and even Aurora only left the bedside of Minerva reluctantly, the only thing that made them do it was so the other two could perform the spells properly and help Minerva.

Then in the evening when Aurora was gone and Harry had been forced to lay down as well, the doors to the Hospital Wing opened once again and James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Lily and Marlene walked inside. In an instant Madam Pompfrey walked out of her office and up to the students.

"No, no, no! No visitors! You can turn right around and leave the-" the nurse stared to say when Harry lifted his uninjured arm.

"Please Poppy, it's alright just for a few minutes."

"But I have strict orders from the headmaster that I should not allow any visitors beside the other Professors!"

"They are a one time exception to this." Harry said and left no room for arguments, huffing and muttering under her breath she left the Hospital room towards her office, one the way she send the half open curtains of Minerva's bed to close around it so she was not to be seen by the visitors. Once she was back inside her office Harry's attention was back on the six students, who looked shocked at the sight of the still fresh pink skin on his shoulder, side and left arm.

"Merlin's beard Harry are you alright? What happened?" James asked approaching his bed.

"Yeah I'm alright again, thanks to our dear Madam Pompfrey and a healer from St Mungos… as to what happened I'm sure you already heard." Harry told them and gave them a small smile.

"Well the most likely story we heard was that you and Professor McGonagall went to visit school friends of yours and were attack. But you can never be sure, there are more than fifty rumours going around as to what happened to you. One was sure you were trying to fight You Know Who on your own and someone else swore you tried to rob Gringotts." Sirius answered the man in front of him.

Harry rolled his eyes, "To have the imagination of a teenager...but you were right, we were on our way to visit some friends we went to Hogwarts with, when around a dozen Death Eaters attacked us, they had the moment of surprise on their side and outnumbered us...you can see the results." Harry said grimly and looked at the six who looked really taken aback, the heads of Lily and Marlene turned to their left to the closed curtains of Minerva's bed.

"What about Professor McGonagall?" Lily asked worried, "Nobody would tell us how you were doing." Harry hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether or not to tell them.

"If I hear that you told one soul, I will make sure the rest of your last school year and exams are hell." knowing he wasn't joking they all nodded. "They kept me under a body bind curse and tortured her the with Crucio while I had to watch." he said and the hands of his future mother and her friend flew to their mouths in shock as both their eyes filled with tears. The other four simply looked like they couldn't or didn't want to believe what he had said.

"Oh Merlin no...but...she'll get better or not?" Marlene asked and all of them held their breath as Harry nodded.

"A little longer and there would have been nothing the healers could've done, she hasn't woken up yet, but she'll recover." he answered her and all of them were more than glad to hear that despite what their Head of House had went through, she was going to be okay.

"If I get those dirty pureblood fuckers in my handy I-" Sirius paused to think of an adequate thing to do but Harry spoke up before he could continue.

"You might want to finish your education first, this is war not a school duel, nobody plays by the rules, or do you think Professor McGonagall and I were easy targets?" all of them shook their heads. "Good, then give your best while you're here, learn as hard as you can so you are able to defend yourself and the ones you love."

"We understand that Professor, but we want to fight against them for our freedom, our friends who already lost their lives or fled and are hiding only because they have no place in their ideology, for a world were children can grow up without the fear and horror of a war." Lupin said seriously. Knowing they would find a way to join the Order as well Harry thought about it.

"Alright, you're sure about this?" he asked and all of them nodded immediately, with Peter being the only exception. "Okay, as often as you and I can I will give you special duelling lessons, so that, if you still choose to fight when you lave the school, you can defend yourselves."

"Really?" Remus asked and he nodded.

"That's awesome!" Sirius said and a small smile appeared on his face.

"Well now that we have discussed this, I'd be happy to rest now, regrowing skin isn't as pleasant or fun as it might sound." the six nodded and all said their goodbye and left, only James stayed a moment longer.

"Did you make them pay for what they did to her?" he asked and couldn't help but shiver when he saw the cold look in his cousins eyes a moment later.

"Each and everyone of them." Harry growled and with that James also left. Harry slowly got up from the bed, using the opportunity that Poppy wasn't near to fuss about him to sit with Minerva once more. He sat down on his chair and took her hand back in his, letting his thump stroke lazily over her knuckles.

"I hope you wake up soon, I miss you, I miss talking to you and the way your eyes start to shine when you talk about Transfiguration, how fierce you get over the Quidditch Games. I never felt this lost before, I need you by my side...please wake up Minerva." he whispers to her still unconscious from, which remained the same until Poppy found him an hour later and forced him into bed.

* * *

But to the nurse's annoyance Harry spend the whole next day exactly like the day before, by Minerva's side. As the only thing that was left to heal was his skin not even Poppy was able to find an excuse as to why he couldn't spend his day like this, so eventually she gave up and left him alone. Only Aurora and a few other teachers stopped by during this day, but expect the Astronomy Professor none of the other stayed too long.

In the evening Harry was still sitting next to Minerva, his feet resting on another chair while he read the new edition of Transfiguration Today to his girlfriend, as Albus walked inside the Hospital Wing.

"Good evening Harry, how are you doing?" the Headmaster asked and Harry sat up straight and laid the Magazine on Minervas nightstand.

"Okay, Poppy said I'm good to leave tomorrow, though I'll have to put some cream on my new skin. I'd feel a lot better if Minerva would wake up...I know she needs time and I would give her all the times she needed but the thought that she believes I let her down is unbearable for me." Harry told him.

"I understand and I wish I could do something to ease your pain, but I think that any words of mine won't help." Harry only nodded in response.

"Is there a reason for your visit?" he then asked, "I mean beside seeing for yourself how we're doing."

Dumbledore put a few privacy charms around them and then sat down next to Harry. "Yes indeed, yesterday I was visiting Mr. Chronos in the Ministry, at least I tried to, sadly he got notice of my visit and, and I have no other word for it, fled. We haven't found him yet but as soon as we do he'll might be able to give us the answers we, most importantly you, need." the older wizard finished and Harry's hands had formed into tight fists as anger spread in his body upon hearing what Dumbledore said.

"He is lucky that I'm not searching for him myself, I don't know if I was capable of holding myself back, knowing I speak to the man who nearly killed Minerva." he hissed.

"Indeed I think he and his partner back in your time had something to do with it, he probably knew it would effected you in some way. So when I came to talk to him he knew it wouldn't be good so he went into hiding."

"Probably...but I just remembered something, when I arrived here, the door they used to get me back in time was destroyed, what if this caused me to get stuck between times?"

"It sounds reasonable, but like I said there are too many possibilities. We have to find Chronos in order to know what exactly happened to you and what consequences we have to expect. My concern is that maybe this can happen more often, or worse that-"

"That I'm pulled back into my old time." Harry finished for him, he had thought of something like this since he woke up, he had tried to push these thoughts away, but a part of Harry wouldn't let him as it was the reason their Mission had been a disaster. What if these things would happen more often, what if it was going to be harder to get back with each time, what if he would end up back in his old time forced to leave his life behind again, or even worse what if he got stuck between times?

"Yes, but until we find Chronos we can only speculate, we will find a solution Harry." Albus told him and Harry sighed.

"I hope you're right Albus." his eyes wandered back to Minerva "the mere thought of leaving her forever is unbearable for me."

"We'll do everything to keep that from happening Harry." the headmaster said and then looked at his watch. "I'm afraid I have to go, I just wanted to let you know about Chronos."

"Alright, thank you Albus." Harry said and with a final nod the Headmaster lifted the charms around them and left. Harry sat closer to Minerva and took her hand in his, unconsciously his thump drew a lazy pattern on the back of her hand while he looked out the window thinking about everything Dumbledore had told him.

Suddenly the unresponsive finger he held in his, slightly moved and closed around his own. Surprised Harry looked at the hand and then to Minerva's face who, to his even greater surprise looked at him through half lidded eyes.

"Harry..." Minerva said in a hoarse whisper before her voice gave away not used to function after days of not speaking one word.

"Oh thank Merlin you're awake, how are you feeling? Do you want me to go and get Poppy?" Harry asked sliding closer to her.

"Water." she managed to croak out and Harry quickly filled a cup on her nightstand and then helped her drink in slow sips.

"Better?" Minerva nodded, "Do you want me to get Poppy?" he asked once more but Minerva shook her head. Harry shifted even closer to her and brought her hand to his face to press a light kiss on it.

"I'm so glad you woke up again, I was so worried about you." he said and Minerva gave him a weak smile, but it disappeared after a short moment.

"What happened? She asked him and Harry hesitated for a second, "What do you remember?" Minerva was quiet for a moment and then paled as she searched her memory, her hold on Harry's hand tightened and her eyes got a far away look as she stared out the opposite windows.

"I was in the manor...they caught me and Avery tortured me, they wanted to know what I heard...then there are just bits and pieces," she closed her eyes and her left came to lay on her cleavage and neck and felt the skin "T-there was a werewolf, he-he found me-" Minervas breathing went faster, she vaguely remembered how Avery undressed her and in the next moment there was a monstrous man on top of her, she felt claws against her skin, calloused hands on her breast and a hot breath on her neck.

Seeing her panicking Harry didn't know what to do to calm her down so he laid his hand against her cheek and gently shook it. "Minerva! Minerva calm down please, you are safe-" her eyes flew open and for a second Harry was taken aback by the fear in her beautiful sapphire green eyes. Minerva's grip on his hand tightened so much like her life depend on it and she would be back with her tormentors if she let go.

"Did- did they rape me?" she asked in a fearful whisper and tears threatened to fall down her face, it broke Harry's heart to see her this way, his strong, fierce, independent Lioness.

"No they didn't, I swear they didn't." hearing this and knowing he would never lie to her Minerva visibly calmed down, taking a deep breath she nodded, then after a while she faced him again but the fear had made room for concern.

"What happened to you? I thought they had murdered you..." her eyes dropped to his left arm where the skin still looked fresh and new. Harry swallowed the lump in his throat, should he tell her? But this wasn't the right moment was it? Minerva had been through so much, he couldn't tell her the truth now, she had just woken up from a days long unconsciousness after being tortured, what if it was too much for her? The absence of Minerva had been so painful and nearly unbearable for him, if there was such a great chance for her to leave him then Harry couldn't tell her, he just had to have, if only, a few more days with her.

"I-I don't know if you can ever forgive me for breaking my promise to come and get you, I'm not even sure I want to forgive myself." he paused, his conscience trying one more time to persuade him to tell the truth.

"One of the Death Eaters arrived late, I don't even know if he knew I was there, or if he only saw a fox and wanted to kill it. I was able to duck his killing curse and managed to turn back in time to fire a spell. He did the same and our spells collided, he was killed while I was flung against a tree and lost my consciousness." Harry told her and then looked at her, now he wasn't lying so he could do so without fearing he his guilty conscience would make him tell her the truth.

"When I woke up and saw what happened, what they did to you, I swear I showed no mercy to them! I did everything to get you out of there," he raised his left a little, "One of them managed to get a blasting curse near me it burned my arm a little but nothing Poppy couldn't fix." he said.

"You fought against over more than a dozen Death Eaters alone?" Minerva asked startled.

"Of course I did, I had to get you out of there. For you I would do it again without hesitating Minerva." Harry murmured and then laid his forehead against hers,"For a moment I feared I had lost you." Minerva laid her free hand on his scarred right cheek, and this gesture was both painful and wonderful at the same time.

"I thought so too when you didn't come, I was so scared, the thought that you were dead or deadly injured was worse than the torture for me." Minerva whispered back and then laid her lips on his for a loving kiss, Harry had missed her lips and Minerva herself so much that he was able to ignore the guilt inside of him that had started to eats it's way through his body like acid. Just this little kiss was able to make it all go away. When they parted Harry got up and laid down next to her on the bed, they continued to share little kisses and just enjoy each others company after being parted from each other for five days, Minerva laid her head on his chest close to his right shoulder and savoured his warmth.

"What did they tell the students and other staff what happened?" Minerva asked quietly.

"That we went to visit friends from Hogwarts and got attacked on the way, but there are around fifty different rumours about what happened to us. According to Sirius one kid even spread the rumour we tried to rob Gringotts."

Minerva gave short huff of a laugh and shook her head, "To have the imagination of a child once again." she mumbled and Harry couldn't help but chuckle. "What?"

"That was exactly what I told him." he answered her and pressed his lips on her forehead.

"We're not so different after all." in this moment Minerva's stomach rumbled loudly and Harry remembered that she hadn't eaten anything in the last few days and he knew from experience that nutrition potions gave the body what it needed but just didn't make up for the real thing.

"Damn I forgot, you must be starving." Harry said as got up as gently and fast as he could, "I'll call a house elf what do you want?" but before Minerva could answer Poppy walked inside the Hospital Wing and saw that her patient was up.

"Oh finally, thank Merlin you woke up, you had us worried there for a moment my dear." The nurse said as she rushed over. "How are you feeling Minerva?" she then asked.

"I'm okay...everything is a little blurry sometimes, still a bit exhausted even though I don't know how that is possible and a bit hungry." the witch answered honestly.

"Alright I'll see what I can do about the first two, Potter would you be so kind as to get Minerva something to eat?" Harry looked at Minerva, he knew that she rather wanted him to stay with her but also knew that Poppy wouldn't let him anyway so she gave him a small nod.

"Of course, I'll be right back" With that he left the two of them alone and called the house elf he came to like the most.

"Fili." with a small pop the elf appeared before him.

"Oh Professor Potter sir, how may Fili serve you?" the elf said in his high voice, he reminded Harry a little bit of Dobby, of course Fili didn't want to be free and his help wasn't dangerous, but in many other things he was quite similar with Dobby.

"Hello Fili, I just wanted to ask if you could bring me a bowel with warm porridge, cinnamon and fruits?"

"Of course Professor Potter Sir! Fili's happy to help you Sir!" as a Professor it had impossible to try and get Fili to call him by his first name, so Harry had given up.

"Thank you." only a few minutes later the house elf brought him the food and just when Fili had vanished after a low bow Poppy was finished with Minerva and walked over to him.

"She is doing really well, if she feels better by tomorrow morning you two will be able to leave." she then looked at the porridge in Harry's hands and seemed to approve of it, at least this was what Harry interpreted it like when she wordlessly left him.

When Minerva had finished her first meal in a week in record time, Harry laid down next to her once more. The dark haired witch snuggled against him once more and Harry had his good arm wrapped around her.

"I...don't remember everything I overheard at the meeting, so I will ask Albus to use Legilimency on me."

"What? Are you sure? Don't you want to wait until you recovered?" Harry asked genuinely surprised by what she had said.

"No, we need to know what I heard as fast as possible, I know that it was something important, I just can't remember it at the moment, I think he'll be able to get it."

"Okay...if you're sure you want to do it, then I'll be with you. I just want to say that nobody would blame you if you wouldn't do it, I hope you know that Mina."

"Yes but I-...Mina?" damn Harry hadn't meant to actually call Minerva by his pet name for her, what if she thought it was stupid?

"Yeah...I just thought...well if you don't like it I won't call you that." but Minerva only turned in his arms and placed a gentle kiss on his lips.

"I like it..." with that she laid her head on his chest again and Harry couldn't help but smile. But suddenly the happiness vanished, as he looked down at her, he couldn't fight the guilt that was now so strong that it threatened to overwhelm him. He had lied to her, he had not only broken his promise, no Harry had also lied to Minerva and deep down he knew that when she found out, and it was only a matter of time before she did, there was a great chance he had destroyed their relationship beyond repair. With these thoughts on his mind Harry only fell asleep an hour later, and even then his sleep was far from pleasant.

When Madam Pompfrey came over to check on Minerva she saw the two of them fast asleep. Shaking her head smiling she made the blanket cover both Harry and Minerva and walked back to her own Quarters to go to bed.

"Those two, if they aren't made for each other, then no one is." she mumbled and shook her head amused.

* * *

 **Hello again!**

 **I really hope you like the new chapter, I know it took me a while but I hope the wait was worth it!**

 **So Minerva has woken up, how long will Harry be able to keep his secret? And will they get Chronos to get some answers? We'll see.**

 **So please leave a review or follow/ favourite the story! Special Thanks to everyone out there who already reviewed and followed/favoured For You I Leave My Future Behind!**

 **Until next time**

 **Patti**


	9. Revelations

9\. Revelations

When Harry woke up the next morning he was still in the Hospital Wing, but he only needed a second before he realized that he wasn't alone in bed, one look to his side told him it was Minerva who laid beside him and had her head pillowed on his right shoulder. Closing his eyes once more he laid his head on top of hers and inhaled her scent, suddenly it was like something rang in the back of his mind, this flowery fresh scent he had smelled it before, long ago, almost in an other life in Slughorn's first potions class. Of course back then he had thought of it to be Ginny, but to be honest he had no idea what Minerva had smelled like back then.

"What are you thinking about?" not opening his eyes he smiled.

"Your scent."

"I know I had no shower in one week, but you could be a little more subtle about it." she answered.

"No, you don't smell bad, you smell good, great in fact, I…it might sound weird but, in one potion class Slughorn made us guess the potions and one was armortentia. It smelled like treacle tart, a broom and something flowery and fresh, like the fist day in spring...it smelled like you."

For a while they were quiet, "I don't think I ever smelled armortentia in my life, but I'm sure it would also smell like you."

"And what would that be?"

"I don't really know, you-"she turned her head and buried her nose in his neck "smell like...you, natural, like fresh herbs, a little bit of wood and leather and just a waft of something sweet." she mumbled in his neck. "your scent is the most sensual I ever came across."

"I couldn't agree more and good morning, how are you feeling?" Harry asked and pressed a kiss to her forehead, Minerva's hand who hand laid on his bandaged shoulder now slid down to his chest.

"Good morning to you too and I feel fine, way better than yesterday, I think I'm good to go."

"Really? You know that nobody would hold it against you if you stayed another day."

"Yes, I know, but I can at least try and I'm sure I'll be okay." Minerva said and gave him a reassuring smile.

"Okay." he answered and pressed another kiss to her hairline.

"And how's your arm and shoulder?"

"Both good as new and now that you are awake and laying by my side I'm feeling great." he paused for a moment before he continued. "You know, in two days there will be weekend again, would you like to spend it together?"

"I'd like to do nothing more than spending the weekend with you." Minerva answered honestly and placed a small kiss to the underside of his jaw. Harry leaned down to meet her lips for another little kiss, but what started as an innocent kiss quickly grew into a very passionate one. Harry had never felt anything like this, no other kiss could compare to it, it was like electricity shot through his body, every nerve was tingling excitingly.

He felt how Minerva's hand slide up to the side of his face and Harry pulled her even closer to him, ignoring the sting of pain as he let his left hand ran through her hair. Harry thought his heart would jump out of his chest when Minerva gently brushed her tongue against his lips, he opened his own more than willingly and moved his tongue to meet hers in a fiercely dance to gain the upper hand. She tasted like nothing Harry had ever tasted before and he didn't care what it was, but he wanted more, he wanted it for the rest of his life and nothing could compare to it, he was addicted the very first moment.

Just then the curtains around Minerva's bed were forcefully pulled aside and Poppy stood before them aching her eyebrow, while the two of them quickly broke apart. "I see you two are feeling better. Just for the record, I normally don't allow my patients to sleep in the same bed."

"We very much appreciate you making an exception for us, especially considering that your normal patients are hormonal teenagers." Harry answered and the eyes of the Matron narrowed but the corner of her mouth slightly twitched.

"Even hormonal teenagers don't dare to snog in my Hospital Wing," she remarked dryly and Harry could feel how Minerva was slightly shaking beside him, he glanced down only to see that it was because she was suppressing her laughter. "Now get out of that bed Potter." Harry couldn't help but grin, he leaned down to place another kiss on Minerva's lips before he got up and Poppy closed the curtains right before his nose with an annoyed look on her face.

He waited until the Matron was done with Minerva's procedure, which seemed to have been successful, because when the curtains moved aside it was Minerva who walked towards him followed by Poppy.

"Alright, you can both go, but you still need to rest for a while, so no dangerous Missions or other tiring activities in the next week."

"But it is fine for us to engage in hours of tiresome activity next week or not?" Harry couldn't help but say and earned himself another annoyed look from Poppy and Minerva's elbow to his uninjured side.

"Thank you for saving our lives Poppy." Minerva said after turning to face the older witch.

"You are welcome," she said with a smile and then turned to Harry "And you, don't forget to put on the cream for the next two days before going to bed." she told him in a stern voice.

"I wouldn't dream of it, thank you for everything Poppy." with that Harry leaned down and kissed the cheek of the matron who blushed furiously.

"Oh get out you two!" with that Madam Pompfrey turned around, but both Harry and Minerva saw the small smile on her lips.

"It's quite early, I don't know about you, but I'll take a quick shower before breakfast." Minerva told him as they walked down the still empty corridors to her chambers.

"Yeah, I could use a real shower and a change of clothes as well, Scourgify helps but it's just not the real thing." Harry answered and squeezed her hand slightly, for a while they walked in silence, taking shortcuts and secret passageways whenever they heard early risers and Harry's knowledge of nearly all of them was more than helpful. Just as they hide from a group of third years Harry decided to speak again.

"You didn't change your mind about the thing with Dumbledore?" Harry asked her quietly, though he was sure there was nobody listening to them he was avoiding saying everything out loud.

"No, it might not be the most comfortable way, but we have to know." Minerva answered as quietly as he had, Harry didn't know how, but he had the feeling she was expecting him to try and talk her out of it.

"Okay, if you are absolutely sure then I'll support you. I just don't want you to think that you have to do it because of anybody else." he said as he intertwined their fingers and now it was Minerva who gave his hand a small squeeze.

"I don't, thank you for caring about me, but also understanding that I have to do it, I know I heard something important, the memory is there I just can't reach it." Minerva said quite frustrated.

"Hey it's okay, I promise we'll find out." they reached her office and upon entering it Harry kissed her goodbye and flooed to his own chambers. It felt strange to leave Minerva alone after spending so much time by her bedside, but at least he knew she was okay and safe and held no grudge against him for not being there to get her out of the house like promised.

With that thought the guilt came rushing back to him nearly physically knocking him down like a raging troll. Minerva trusted him and he was lying to her, he felt disgusted of himself, but he didn't know _how_ to tell her. Harry knew he had to tell her, he wanted to, but he couldn't do it as long as he hadn't figured out the problem with the Unspeakables, he couldn't tell her until he knew for sure he was going to stay in this time. Trying to occupy himself with anything he quickly stripped off his clothes and stepped into the shower, subconsciously wanting to wash off the guilt he felt.

Involuntarily his thought wandered back to Minerva and he imagined her under the shower, first he only wondered if she was also thinking about what had happened, but then his imagination ran wild and he began to think only of Minerva. How her wet hair was falling down her back clinging to her body, water running over her skin with steam drifting around her.

Harry could almost feel her soft skin under his fingers, as he imagined himself in the shower with her. How he ran his hands over her body, cupping her breasts how her hard nipples pressed into his palms and how Minerva pushed back against him and his hardening cock. It took Harry a lot to force his thoughts back to his own lonely shower and the fact that he hadn't had sex in five months wasn't helping at all. Still, Harry also knew he had no time to properly take care of his erection, so he simply turned on the cold water and thought about Ron's Aunt Muriel, which was always a safe way to get rid of a hard-on.

After getting dressed in clean clothes he flooed back to Minerva's Quarters and arrived just a moment before Minerva walked out of her bedroom dressed in simple green dress and putting her long hair up in it's usual bun. Harry couldn't help but smile when he saw her, Minerva didn't noticed him until she finished putting her hair up and turned around to look for her robes and flinched when she saw him standing next to her fireplace.

"Harry! You scared me half to death!"

"Sorry, that was certainly not my intention." Harry said as he walked towards her and kissed her cheek.

"I hope so," Minerva replied and wrapped her arms around Harry, who immediately returned the gesture. "Just hold me for a moment, before we have to go out there and pretend we feel nothing more than friendship." she mumbled her face buried in his neck and so he did, he simply held her.

"Minerva if we don't go now I won't leave this room and neither will you and as much as I would like to do that, I can't imagine astro fraud teaching DADA one more time." Harry said quietly and Minerva chuckled amused.

"Alright, let's go." he waited until she had put on her cloak and then they left for the Great Hall, as it was already breakfast time they met no students. Before the two would walk around the corner and towards the Great Hall Harry leaned down for a last little kiss and Minerva smiled at him. When they stepped inside the Hall the conversations died down and all the students looked at them, some of them even stood up to get a good look.

Students turned to their friends to whisper in their ears, some told them they were glad the two Professors were back, most of them were Gryffindors who were happy their Head of House was back and doing well. Saying 'thank you' here and there the two made their way up to the Head Table so sit down, also their colleagues were welcoming them back and Aurora wrapped her arms around Minerva for a quick hug.

"It's great to see you two doing better." the Astronomy Professor told them and Harry gave her a smirk.

"You said 'you two' are you going soft on me now astro fraud?" he asked while pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Oh shut the hell up shitty glasses, I was giving you some time off to get better!" Aurora growled as she glared at him, before she leaned to her best friend who rolled her eyes.

"See I try to be nice and this is what I get."

"Merlin, you two are going to be the death of me and just for the record, don't believe I don't know that you two got along just fine while I was unconscious."

"That was something different, you were hurt after all." Harry explained to her and Aurora nodded.

"A truce, nothing more-" Seeing the look her best friend threw at her Aurora quickly shut her mouth, but behind Minerva's back she looked at Harry and formed the words 'Who blabbed?' but he could only shrug his shoulders. As neither of the two wanted to make Minerva angry, they didn't say another mean word to each other for the rest of the breakfast. Harry couldn't believe how much he had actually missed teaching the last few days in which he had been conscious and recovering, even the things and the few students who annoyed him weren't that bad on this day.

* * *

After ending his last lesson of the day, which happened to be the class of his parents, Harry spoke up again. "Could I have a word with you and your friends Mr. Potter?" he said and gestured to Sirius, Remus, Marlene and Lily. The five stayed behind and a few of the other students looked curious about what he'd wanted to talk about, especially Snape, but after he told them to hurry up or he would assist them, the classroom cleared faster. With a flick of his wand he warded the door from curious ears.

"Well, you hopefully remember that I told you I would train you, I expect you to show up tomorrow at seven thirty on the seventh floor, opposite of that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy." he was met with quite confused faces but non of them questioned what he had said.

"Alright, that would be all you're dismissed, I see you tomorrow." four of the three walked out of his classroom but James remained in front of Harry. "Can I help you with something James?"

"You actually can, you just said you wanted to see the five of us, but what about Peter?" James asked, Harry could tell that his father wasn't happy with the idea that his friend was being excluded, even though said friend would betray him and be the reason of his and his future wife's death.

"It's not because I don't like him, even though that's true- don't look at me like that James, I'm an adult and not Helga Hufflepuff I don't have to like everybody. The reason I won't do it is that Peter didn't manage to get the necessary OWL to be in my class, he is already behind you and I need to focus on you. I can't waste my time on teaching him the basics he had time to achieve in five years. But if it's so important to you than you can teach him yourself." Harry told him and James was clearly angry, wanting to defend his friend even though he knew that Harry wasn't having it and it wouldn't change his decision.

"So you are alright with not training him, knowing he might die out there?"

"Yes, and you won't be able to talk me into feeling guilty or change my decision, I won't tell him or anybody to fight, that's everybody's own decision and that alone. I won't feel guilty about things I can't control, I'll do my best in training you, but that's all I can do. And if Mr. Pettigrew is going to fight, than he is also doing this willingly and with knowledge of his lack of skills." Harry retorted, he knew James probably thought the anger in his voice was directed at him, though in truth it was towards Peter. Harry had thought about it since he had made the offer, but he just couldn't bring himself to teach Pettigrew only for him to murder more people.

"Fine, then I'll teach him. I really expected more of you." James said with anger in his voice.

"I can live with that. Now, will you be able to get over this and let me train you, or will you stay angry at me for something so ridiculous and be unable to follow my orders? Because in that case you don't have to show up." Harry said and James thought about what he said.

"No, I want to be trained by you."

"Alright, now hurry or you'll be late for your Quidditch practice." Harry told his father as he sat down in his chair and began to read some essays.

"Bye." James retorted shortly and left the room. Harry wasn't happy that his father was angry with him, but he just couldn't do it and one day, when James would give his life for his wife and son, all because of Peter's betrayal, he would hopefully understand.

He nearly finished all of his paperwork when he was interrupted.

"Not finished for today?" he looked up and saw Minerva standing in the doorway to his classroom.

"Hello there, don't tell me you're already finished?" he asked while she closed the door and walked down to him.

"I am, it seems like Albus was better at maintaining the paperwork than Ro."

"Yeah, actually I'm quite sure she added some of hers..." Harry mumbled as he got up and leaned against his desk. Minerva smiled a little but it seemed off, his eyes narrowed and he gently pulled her closer.

"What's on your mind?" he asked and laid his hand against her cheek.

"How do you know?" Minerva asked a little surprised.

"Well I know you, I know you when you are feeling just fine and I know when there is something on your mind and worrying you. What is it Mina?"

"I have a meeting with Albus in, well ten minutes, so we can find out what happened, I was actually just on the way to his office but...I know I said I wanted to do it and I do, I really do, it's just..." Minerva turned around suddenly feeling stupid, but a set of strong arms held her close before she could escape. "I'm not scared about doing it...I'm scared about what we might find out." she whispered and closed her eyes, but Harry didn't say anything for a while, he just held her close, then Minerva was pulled back even closer to him and Harry pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"Yes."

"Good, then I will be by your side." Harry said quietly and laid his head against hers. "How was your day?" he asked and felt how Minerva relaxed against him, laid her head back on his shoulder and her arms over his which were now wrapped around her middle.

"Brilliant, I only ever remember how much I love teaching when I was away. My first years actually gave me a giant box of chocolate frogs and a card they all signed, it was such a sweet gesture I even ate one." she told him with a smile on her lips. But her words still caused Harry to frown a little.

"But you don't like chocolate."

"I know, but I couldn't tell them! They were so excited, so I handed them out and we spend the first few minutes eating chocolate frogs. Now there are only two left, so it's a win win." Minerva finished and Harry chuckled.

"It's a win win because they made you happy, you got rid of most of the chocolate frogs and I'll be getting the ones left am I right?" Harry told her and Minerva turned to look at him with a slight apologetic look on her face.

"Well, almost, I only have one for you, Ro ate the other."

"That woman-" he began only to shut up a second later, instantly forgetting about the chocolate frogs when a pair soft lips laid on his.

"Who cares about chocolate frogs." he mumbled against her lips and Minerva smiled.

"We should go or we'll be late." Minerva said once they parted and Harry nodded. When they arrived and entered Albus' Office they were met by a surprised look on the headmasters face.

"Oh, did I forget you mentioning company Minerva?"

"No, I just asked Harry to accompany me, is that a problem?" Minerva asked but Albus only smiled.

"Of course not dear. Have a seat." they both took the offer and sat down in front of the Headmaster. "Before we start I would like to tell you that I was able to remove the memory of the imprisoned Death Eaters that you are an Animagus Minerva."

"Thank you."

"Alright, when you told me what you planned I searched for easier ways, I didn't want to invade you mind this way. So I might have found a way, if your memories are blocked because you subconsciously don't want to remember, then we could try a form of the memory spell, it is barely known, you'd have to be asleep but then I'd be able to get the memory in a less forcing way."

"And if the memory is not blocked because of that?" Minerva asked.

"Then we can still try Legilimency, if you want to." Dumbledore said and Harry reached over and took Minerva's hand in his who gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"Alright, than we should start." Dumbledore stood and conjured up a couch, Minerva stood too and then laid down on the new piece of furniture in the Headmasters Office. Harry took his chair and sat next to the couch and Minerva reached up and took his hand, he gave her a reassuring smile and Minerva then nodded at Albus, he handed her a potion and only a moment after she had taken it she fell asleep. Harry watched closely while Albus waved his wand over Minerva's head and murmured a spell, after a few minutes Dumbledore held the tip of his wand to her temple and slowly extracted a memory.

With his free hand Harry conjured a vial and held it towards Albus and watched how the memory filled it. Albus then gave him the antidote for the sleeping potion and stood to get his pensieve from the cupboard, while Harry knelt next to Minerva and gently gave her the potion to wake her up. It only took the potion a few moments to work before her eyes opened, Minerva blinked at him and Harry smiled at her.

"Did it work?" she asked as she sat up and looked over to Albus who had placed the pensieve on his desk.

"There is only one way to find out, are you ready to watch it?" the older wizard asked and Minerva nodded and stood up, Harry and her walked to the desk as Dumbledore poured the memory in the pensieve and the three lowered their faces to watch the memory.

They watched and listened what the Death Eaters talked about and when Greyback and the other Death Eater arrived they watched how Minerva was discovered and the first time Avery placed her under the Crucio. Albus moved to take them back but Harry turned towards Minerva who was frozen next to him and staring at herself getting tortured.

"Do you allow me to stay? I won't if you don't want to and I will never ask you again." Harry said it hurt him physically to see her in so much pain, but he had to see with his own eyes what had happened to her because he couldn't keep his promise.

"Yes." Minerva stepped closer to him when the screams of her memory self intensified and Harry held her in his arms as both stood and watched what had happened to her. When Avery raised his wand to undress her Minerva closed her eyes, as cruel as it was she remembered this well enough. Finally when the memory was over and they were back in Albus' Office they all sat down and for a while it was quiet.

"Please believe me when I say that I am inconsolable about what you endured for all of us Minerva, I hope you know that everything you heard was most valuable and I will make sure that you did not go through all of that for nothing." Albus told them quietly but Minerva only nodded and looked at Harry.

"I never liked taking lives, even this time something deep inside me told me I was wrong to do it. But now I am glad I ended as many of them as I could they didn't deserve less for what they did to you and to so many others." he said and then looked at Minerva before he took her hand again "I hope one day you can forgive me that I wasn't there to prevent this from happening."

"Harry, there is nothing you need forgiveness for, you were attacked, there was nothing you could have done and you still saved me. This memory ended the way it did because of you, if it weren't for you Merlin knows what they would have done to me. I don't blame you for anything Harry, I'm grateful." her small smile tore him apart. He couldn't lie to Minerva not after what he had seen, he couldn't do this to her, maybe to everyone else, but not to her, not for another minute, he loved her too much. Even if it meant she wouldn't want to be with him anymore.

"You have no reason to be grateful Minerva, I wasn't honest with you, in fact I willingly lied to you." he said and it broke his heart when her smile faltered and confusion appeared on her face.

"Harry-" but before Albus could say anything else Harry had raised his hand in a silent plea to stay quiet.

"I wasn't attacked and I'm not the man you think I am...I'm a time traveller."

* * *

 **Hello again!**

 **I'm really sorry it took me so long to continue, but I hope you liked the chapter and might find the time to tell me about it in a review!**

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	10. Give Me Something I Can Believe In

10\. Give Me Something I Can Believe In

A long and deafening silence followed his words, the confusion on Minerva's face did not disappear but intensified even and was accompanied with wariness that made Harry cringe.

"What?" she asked quietly but without much emotion in her voice. His heart was beating fast against his chest and he didn't know if the lack of emotion in her reaction was a good sign or not. He silently begged any higher might that Minerva would understand why he had done it, nothing more. She had the right to be hurt and to be angry and everything, but he hoped she would understand when she heard the whole story.

"I travelled in time, I'm not the Harrison Potter you think I am," he paused not exactly knowing how to continue, but at his words the witch beside him had turned her head to look at Albus quietly asking the Headmaster if Harry was telling the truth.

"Yes he is telling the truth, but I'm the only one who knows." Albus answered her and Minerva looked back to Harry, now the confusion had vanished but now she hid her feelings behind an unmoving mask.

"Who are you?" she asked and Harry wanted to answer but it was Dumbledore who spoke first.

"I think it will be better if you have this conversation alone, you can-" but Minerva interrupted him, her eyes not leaving Harry's and there was a part not hidden by her mask, because he could see the hurt she felt in her eyes.

"No, I want you to stay. You're the only one who knows if he is really telling the truth."

"Who are you?" she asked again and Harry took a deep breath to calm himself down a little, with no success. Still, he began to speak his eyes holding the glance of Minerva's eyes.

"My name is Harry James Potter, I'm the son of James Potter and Lily Evans born on July 31th 1980. Voldemort went after them because of a Prophecy that was made about him and me, naming me as the only one who can defeat him. A year later on October 31th his hunt came to an end when my parents were betrayed giving him the chance to murder both my parents...when he tried to murder me, the Killing Curse reflected. He unwillingly turned me into a Horcrux but was forced to flee on the verge of death only surviving because of the other Horcruxes he had created." Harry paused and gave Albus the time to confirm his story until now.

"I became famous as the Boy Who Lived. Albus brought me to my Muggle Family were I grew up being abused and neglected not knowing about our world, who I or my parents were, being told they died in a car accident. That only changed when I got my Hogwarts letter, I attended Hogwarts and started to learn everything about the Wizarding World and had to stop Voldemort from coming back two times. But in my fourth year he rose again and the Second Wizarding War began, it took us three years to defeat him and the lives of many good people, who died fighting him." while he spoke memories flooded his mind, memories of Cedric, Voldemort, Umbridge, Sirius, Albus, the Horcrux hunt and the battle, memories of all the people who had lost their lives.

"We lived in peace for a decade, rebuilt the Wizarding World and did our best to heal the wounds Voldemort had left in everyone. I was working as an Auror and in 2008 one Unspeakable, Severin, wanted my help in the Department of Mysteries, he tricked me and sent me back in time. He and an Unspeakable here discovered a hole in time and used me to test it. I was send back here to fight Voldemort again, they said that they did it so I could save some people, but now I realize all they did was forcing me to stand by and let history repeat itself. They informed Albus of what they did, using my originally dead uncle as a cover, telling him I volunteered. Now I'm here without friends and family, everyone I loved is either not born or can't know about be."

"You know what happened then, since the day I arrived here was the day I had the interview with Albus. But whatever these two bastards did wasn't as fool proof as they thought, when I watched the meeting I wasn't attacked by another Death Eater. I was somehow pulled in between times, I could see what happened in my old timeline but my body was still at the mansion. I- when your other self arrived in the old time and I touched her I- heard you screaming and immediately I searched for a way back. When I kissed the other Minerva I was suddenly back in the forest and did exactly what I told you before. I only wanted to get you out of there." Harry told her, Minerva had closed her eyes, her mask was crumbling a mix between hurt, betrayal and worry flickered across her features.

Carefully he reached out and his heart was speeding up again, beating so hard in his chest he was sure the other two could hear it. Again Harry begged, he wished for nothing more than for a spark of hope that he hadn't destroyed what they had beyond repair. And when he laid his hand on top of Minerva's, to his great surprise, she didn't flinch back or pull her hand away from his, but she also made no attempt to hold his hand. He could only hope that this might be a sign that she didn't hate him.

"Minerva I can assure you that Harry was telling you the truth, what he said is a hundredth percent conform with what the Unspeakable Chronos told me. I also suspect that somehow he and his partner had something to do with what happened to Harry, because Chronos fled when he got notice of my arrival in the Department of Mysteries."

Suddenly Minerva stood and took a deep breath, "I- I have to go." she turned around and went to the fireplace through which she quickly flooed to her office. Both wizards were silent for a few minutes, neither of them was ready to say something again now with Minerva gone. Harry laid his head in his hands before he ran them through his hair, staring at the front of Dumbledore's desk.

"I had to tell her Albus...I couldn't lie to her anymore, not when she went through this."

"I understand Harry, you don't have to explain yourself to me. But I think you should talk to Minerva alone." Albus said and Harry sighed before he got up.

"Thank you Albus." with that he also vanished through the fireplace.

When Harry arrived in her quarters he was met by silence, he saw her standing before a window with her back towards him. He stayed were he was, he wanted to give her space.

"Minerva? Can I talk to you?"

"I-" she spoke up, but no other words followed for a few moments. "I think I need some time to think about everything Harry." she answered and Harry swallowed, but then again she had the right to think about everything she had heard this evening.

"Of course, you can have all the time you need. I-" he wanted to say I love you, but he couldn't say it, not in this moment, not because his feelings had changed, but because Harry didn't want to put even more pressure on Minerva. He didn't want her to feel forced into anything when he had all but stained their relationship.

"Good night." he said instead and left her rooms. As he made his way towards his own chambers, Harry felt strangely relieved despite what had happened. Harry didn't regret telling Minerva the truth about him, she had deserved to know it and it felt good that he didn't have to lie in front of her anymore. He'd rather not be together with her than being a couple and lying to Minerva, even though Harry worried about what Minerva was going to do, give him another chance or deciding he had betrayed her trust beyond repair.

Harry was so deep in his thoughts that he didn't even notice he had arrived in the corridor of his quarters until he nearly walked past them. Upon entering Harry paused for a moment and sighed, not bothering to turn on the light he got out of his outer robe throwing it over his sofa, leaving him only in his shirt and trousers. After all this years Harry still preferred Muggle clothing under his robes.

He went over to his liquor cabinet and poured himself a glass of Gin. Standing in front of one of the windows in his living room, watching the dark grounds trying to think of something else and with the taste of the alcohol a memory invaded his mind. It was the one of his twenty fifth birthday when he had been gifted a box of Blast Ended Gin from Hannah, who, as the knew owner of the Leaky Cauldron, had invented the drink naming it after the damned Blast Ended Skrewts Hagrid had bred in their fourth year. Ultimately turning him into a fan of Gin itself and funnily many others as it became one of the most popular drinks at the Leaky Cauldron.

Suddenly the sky opened up causing the full moon to enlighten the dark grounds causing Harry's eyes to catch some movement in the dark near Hagrid's hut. For a moment he tensed but then he recognized the shapes, a stag, a wolf and a big black dog all made their way into the forest and probably there was a traitorous rat with them. For a moment Harry thought about turning into his own Animagus form and following them, but then decided against it.

Harry emptied his glass, poured another one and then sat down in front of his piano. It turned out he wasn't in the mood for any piece in particular, always abandoning the ones he played before they ended. So he just played tunes that came to his mind and after a while his thoughts wandered back to Minerva, his fingers began to hit the keys lead by the emotions he felt when he thought of her. Before Harry knew it he had created a piano piece that described what he felt for Minerva and he ended up playing it again and again until the sun started to rise at the horizon.

With the beginning of the new day Harry stopped playing and went to take a shower. Trying to focus on something else he thought about the training of his parents and their friends, he had memorized most of the Auror training methods, but what he lacked was material. Some of it he could compensate with the Room of Requirement, but even the room had it's limits. As Harry wanted to avoid an awkward situation at breakfast he called a House elf and asked him to bring him a small breakfast he ate in his quarters, coming up with a training schedule for his five students.

Now the only thing he really needed was one of the Auror Training Dummies, which had been invented in 1975 and had been still in use when Harry had been trained as an Auror. There had been a few minor upgrades over the years, but the original ones still had the same purpose as the knew ones. These dummies were highly charmed objects so that they, depending on the year of training, could reproduce jinxes and curses which had been cast on them before, like a real enemy in battle. But there was one problem, the person responsible for the dummies was none other than Alastor Moody.

So when Harry was finished for the day, having no lessons in the last period of the day, he ate an early dinner in his office, he had also skipped lunch for the same reason he had skipped breakfast, Harry walked down the pathway to the Gates so he could apparate to the Ministry. Unknown to him, a pair of green eyes watched him walking away from a window on the first floor.

* * *

Upon his arrival in the Ministry Harry was greeted with it's usual hectic atmosphere and made his way towards the elevators with a big group of Ministry employees. Finally in the Auror Bureau he was greeted from several people and not really knowing them he simply waved his hand at them or gave them a polite smile.

That was until a door at the end of the corridor opened and it turned out it was the door to the office he had searched for.

"Potter! What the hell are you doing here?" the younger version of Moody barked while he limped out of his office and towards Harry. He looked like the Moody he remembered the only difference was that he had not as many scars, a normal nose and his hair was not completely white. But personally he was surely was still the same.

"I need to talk to you about something Sir." Harry said not sure how his old self would have talked to Mad-Eye so he decided on a more formal way, he was sure that Moody wouldn't hesitate to make him run laps or something for being disrespectful.

"Hmpf, I thought your new purpose in life was trying to teach ungrateful little dunderheads magic." Moody grumbled at him with one raised eyebrow.

"That's sort of the reason I wanted to talk to you Sir, could we speak for a moment?" Moody only turned around with a grunt and walked back inside his office.

"What are you waiting on?" Harry shook his head trying to continue looking serious but barely succeeded, he hadn't realized until now how much he had actually missed Mad-Eye. Once he stepped inside the office the door closed and immediately locked itself and he was face to face with Moody's wand.

"Who are you and don't even think about lying to me or you'll end up faster in Azkaban than you can say trial!" of course this was bound to happen, Harry sighed inwardly and raised his hands in surrender, a second later his arms were tied to his body by robes.

"Please let me explain, there is no need to imprison me or anything-"

"I will decide about that! Who are you?" fuck, he hadn't planned on telling more people than necessary, but Mad-Eye sure as hell wouldn't buy his lies. Harry was also sure that Moody wouldn't turn him in or anything if he knew his secret, he was also sure he wouldn't tell and it might be helpful in the future.

"Do you have Veritaserum? I won't resist it and otherwise I'm pretty sure you won't believe me. If you want you can contact Dumbledore and ask him if what I told you is the truth." Harry said calmly.

"Your either very smart or very stupid," Alastor said and moved towards his desk his magical eye surely watching him and catching the slightest movement he was making. Moody returned with the truth serum and stood in front of Harry, his wand pointing at his chest "Open your mouth." Harry did as he was told and Mad-Eye let three drops fall into his mouth. A slight foggy feeling overcame Harry but he was still fully conscious.

"Who are you?"

"Harry James Potter and Harrison Potter. My Parents are James Potter and Lily Evans."

"How can you be Harry James Potter _and_ Harrison Potter?" Moody asked slightly confused, he knew Harrison had a younger cousin named James who, to his knowledge, was still in school.

"I was born as Harry James Potter to James Potter and Lily Evans in 1980, but I was send back in time in the year 2008 and am now Harrison Potter who originally died in 1977." now that was truly surprising, if what this Harrison or Harry was telling him was indeed the truth. This might be new to this lad, but Harrison had been one of his favourite recruits since a long time and to him, Harrison was his protégé and hearing he would have or might already have died wasn't easy. It had already surprised him when Harrison had told him in a letter during his time off he would take the position as DADA Professor, Alastor had thought Harrison had only taken the job because he had an nearly unhealthy crush on Minerva McGonagall.

"Are you a Death Eater?"

"No."

"Why were you send back then?"

"It was an experiment of two Unspeakables one in this time and one in mine who decided I would be the best Person to send back and help fighting Voldemort."

"Why did you came here today?"

"I wanted to ask you if you could lend me a Training Dummy, because I want to train my parents and some of their friends, as they want to fight Voldemort once they finish school." if Harry was anything like Harrison then this didn't surprise Moody at all that he was training the ones he held dear.

"Do you know how Harrison died?"

"No."

"Was it his decision to go teaching or yours?"

"I don't really know, but I think it was the idea of the Unspeakables. The real Harrison might have been already dead." having enough answers Moody grabbed the antidote and made the man in front of him take a sip.

Harry felt how the effect of the truth serum left his body and then the ropes around his body vanished. "Thank you." he said and flexed his hands a little, looking at Moody who sat down behind his desk.

"So you need a Training Dummy, you can have two if you return them by the end of the year, if not I will put you through three years of my training when you return."

"You believe me?" surprised that Moody believed him so quickly Harry didn't realize the meaning of Mad-Eye's words until a moment after. "Wait, why wou-" then Harry remembered that Voldemort had jinxed the DADA position, something that had completely slipped his mind, and that he surely had to leave the castle by the end of the year. He briefly wondered what his reason to leave would be, but then he focused back on Moody in front of him.

"I do, you don't have a reason to lie and even if you were so stupid of lying I could find you in under ten minutes and throw you in a cell in Azkaban."

"Good point. Well I promise you to return them to you as good as they are now."

"Fine, now get out of my office." Mad-Eye growled at him.

"How I missed your lovable nature." Harry replied grinning and Moody sent him a glare with his normal eye.

"Don't you dare getting cheeky now! I can still lock your sorry arse up!" Harry turned around but paused at the door once more.

"Just one question," he started and turned around once more. "how did you know something was off about me?"

"Years and years of experience and instinct." Moody said, thought about what he wanted to say for a moment and then added, "And because I trained Harrison for years and he was one of the best Aurors I ever saw and he was a cheeky little bastard who didn't call me Sir since he finished his training."

"You also inspired me very much, I was an Auror in my old time too. But thanks for the compliment Mad-Eye."

"Get out Potter!" Harry didn't need to be told twice and left the office and went for the training hall at the other end of the floor. He hadn't planned on telling anyone any time soon, but at least it was Moody who, that Harry was sure off, would take his secret to his grave. Another thing this encounter did, was showing him once more that the 'fool proof plan' of Chronos and Severin wasn't nearly as good as they had thought it to be. He also had to find out more about Harrison Potter, to avoid situations like this.

* * *

Arriving back at Hogwarts Harry saw that he had about two hours left to prepare the Room of Requirement. So not to waste any time he hurried up to the seventh floor and entered the Room with the wish to turn into a training hall, picturing the one of the Aurors and when he opened the door he saw an exact copy if the training hall he had wanted.

He then walked outside again and thought about another room attached to the already existing one through a door and this time he wanted the room mimic the Forbidden Forest. Walking back inside the room Harry was pleased to see a door leading off the training hall, opening it he found himself standing in what could easily be the Forbidden Forest. Harry already knew about their duelling skills, but even knowing meany spells and being able to cast them wouldn't help you in a real fight if you lacked the physical abilities and were out of breath after three minutes.

Now that he was finished with is preparations his thoughts immediately went back to Minerva and what had happened. How was she doing? A small part of Harry was of course curious about how she might have decided or at least to what she tended, but the bigger part of him was concerned about Minerva herself and her feelings.

Harry had thought that it had been bad and that he had been feeling miserable when he had turned her down, but this, as to expect, was way worse. He couldn't really blame it on anybody than himself, maybe on the two Unspeakables, but they didn't make him fall in love with Minerva, for that Harry could only blame himself. Even though he felt like it was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

The only thing that stopped his train of thoughts were the voices he could hear outside. Taking a deep breath and refocusing himself Harry went outside to greet his victims.

"Good evening." he said when he opened the door and was greeted by the sight of five confused looking seventh years.

"Hi Professor." Lily and Marlene greeted him while the other three were only grinning at him in anticipation. Harry was glad to see that James seemed to be okay with Peter not being there, maybe he realized that Harry had been right and Peter just wasn't ready for this type of training. At least he was pretty sure James would realize this once he had finished the first training.

"Get inside before somebody sees you." Harry said while he stepped aside to let them in and once the door had closed he turned to face them.

"You might wonder where we are, this is the Room of Requirement and if you walk past this piece of wall three times, thinking really hard on a thing you need, then, with a few limitations, the room will accommodate to or give you what you wished for. You are allowed to use this room in your free time and outside our training sessions and should do so. If you want to enter this room just think 'I want to use the Potter training hall'. Understood?" they all nodded and looked as impressed as Harry had probably looked when he had first been in the room back in his fifth year.

"And I hope it's clear that you won't tell one soul about this specific room, not even Peter, absolutely no one." Harry explained to them and saw a grim look flicker across James' face but in the next moment he seemed to have his feelings back under control.

"Now, let's start without further delays. I told you I would train you so you'll know your way around in a real fight and I intend on achieving just that. Well as you see you are in a training hall, this is the same training all that is used to train the Auror recruits and it'll be just that hard."

"No spell knowledge is going to save you in a duel, if you are out of breath and unable to duck curses. So the first thing we will do is train physically and get you in shape. Any questions?"

"No I think the instructions were quite clear." Sirius answered and the others nodded.

"Alright, then let's get started with warm up."

It had turned out to be the right way to start just like Harry had assumed. Apart from James who had a slightly better condition than the other four, they were pretty much on the same level and took great profit from the physical training. After the first training session they had been quite alright, but no later than the third time, they were cursing him and his methods throughout the training. But apart from his own skills as a trainer, the often horrible news in the radio or in the prophet were enough to motivate each and everyone of them.

* * *

Two weeks had past since he had started training them and every two days they were in the Room of Requirement doing better and better each day. With the next session Harry wanted to start their combat training, so he could see on what each of them had to work on.

Of course Harry's own motivation in training was also because he had much less time to think about Minerva. She still hadn't talked to him about what had happened, which was slowly driving him mad, and so he used the training to occupy his mind and body with something else. The few times they had spent in the same room, mostly the Great Hall during meal times because Harry carefully avoided Minerva in the hallways, had been filled with silence between them. They both tried to keep up the facade but at least their colleagues knew something was off.

These days Harry missed her even more than when he had turned her offer down to go to Hogsmeade together. Having already been so close to Minerva, even closer than before and now being so far away was torture, but one he had inflicted upon himself. Harry was still hoping that every day she would come by and talk to him and with each passing day it didn't happen he was hurting a bit more. And as strange as it sounded every night he would play her piece on his piano as it was the only thing that made him feel close to Minerva these days.

Walking towards his Quarters late at night on a Friday after an intense training for himself, he only wanted to take a shower and then go to sleep and spent the whole next day doing nothing. Harry yawned when opened the door to his Quarters, so that he didn't notice that he wasn't alone right away. But when his eyes caught the movement by is windows he whirled around and immediately froze when he saw Minerva standing there.

"Minerva wha- Hello." Harry said quickly interrupting himself before he could ask her what she was doing here.

"Hello. I came by earlier but you weren't there so...I thought I'd wait for you. I hope you don't mind, I can leave if you're busy." her voice was steady but quiet.

"Please stay," Harry answered as quietly as her and made a small step towards Minerva. "Why did you came by?" he asked his heart already starting to beat faster in his chest out of nervousness and simply because of his feelings for her.

"Can we talk?" she asked back and Harry nodded.

"Of course we can." he told her walked closer to her, again he hoped it was a good sign she wasn't backing away. "Do you want to sit down or have a drink?"

"Why now Harry?" Minerva asked calmly not answering his question. "Why did you tell me now?" Harry swallowed but looked in her eyes as he spoke.

"Because I couldn't lie to you any more, I didn't want to. Minerva you are the most important person in my life, no matter what timeline, I can lie to everyone else but not to you. I want you to know because I can't do any of this without you," he paused it was now or never, so he threw all precaution over board. "Because I love you, I never loved anyone like I love you, with my whole heart and soul. I- I was thrown back in this time and all I wanted was to go back."

"I saved the Wizarding World so often, it was my 'duty' to save it since I was a baby and all I got in return was fame I never wanted. Fame that was paid with the lives of so many people I held dear, my friends, my family. I thought there was nothing this time could give me, to make worth the sacrifice I yet had to make again, I might be able to talk to my parents, but not as their son, I'm merely their cousin or teacher. But than you walked inside that office and we spent time together and I got to know you and fell in love with you and suddenly I didn't want to go back any more."

"Suddenly there was something that made me think that I could do this, that I would be able to let people I know die, if it only means I get to be with you." at this she gasped and Harry saw the tears that had started to fill her eyes running down her cheeks.

"You can't-" she stopped and Harry continued.

"I have to, with or without you. I can't save my parents, and in a way that is okay, it would change time to much. Now I can help, but with them living, nobody knows what the future will bring and maybe it'll be even worse. I grew up without them once, I can do it again, maybe this time it won't be exactly like the way I grew up, maybe it'll be better. But they have to die." Harry told her and was now so close to her like he hadn't been in two weeks, he slowly raised his hands and laid them on her face, gently brushing the tears away with his thumbs.

"What if you and me being together is also enough to change time too much? What if it also causes more trouble and harm?"

"I thought about that every day since I found myself falling in love with you and I realized that I don't care, I spend my whole life convincing myself that I didn't deserve this or that. I won't do it again, not this time. I deserve love, our love. I already told you I can give up anything and everyone, but not you. You already mean so much to me, even if you don't want to be with me, then my purpose is to protect you with my life." they once again were silent, then Minerva closed her eyes and laid her hands on his chest.

"Do you hate me?"

"No." her words were barely above a whisper.

"And that is what drives me so mad. I was hurt by men so often, that I swore to myself I would never let a man this close to me again, so that no matter what he did, it wouldn't hurt me any more and I could leave without a doubt. I was so proud to say I'm independent, that I don't need no man in my life. Then you came around and suddenly it was like you lid a fire in me, I never fell in love that hard or that fast, in fact you make me feel like I have never loved anyone before."

"I wanted to hate you, I wanted to be angry, how could you do this? How could you change me, without even trying, without force? I don't want to be apart from you for one day, the last two weeks were hell I- the only thing I could think about was that I forgive you. But there was that voice in my head that kept me from going to you. You lied to me, you told me that you are not the person I thought you were and I can simply forgive you? I should be mad, I should feel betrayed and hurt and in a way I am, but not as I should be! I feel betrayed because you thought you couldn't tell me and not because you lied to me about who you really are."

"How come it didn't change my feelings for you?"

"I don't know." they were looking at each other and it was like they were looking at each others soul. In the next moment he already felt her wonderful lips against his own and as he wrapped his arms around Minerva and kissed her back, he swore to himself he would never let her go again. For she held his heart and soul and was the only thing that made him believe he could do it all again.

* * *

 **Hello again!**

 **I really hope you like the way the chapter turned out! I tried my best. Please leave your opinion in a review!**

 **The sad news are, that this might be the last update for a while, because I have final exams coming up and therefore don't have the time to write as much as I would like to do!**

 **Still I want to thank you again for every review you left and to everyone who favoured and followed the story! You are amazing!**

 **Until next time**

 **Patti**

 **A little Update that might be helpful if you have similar questions/thoughts like this Guest:**

 **Dear Guest 'The 16th Doctor' you left some reviews on things I thought I already explained, but I'll happily explain them to you again.**

 **1\. I think you confused Chronos the Greek God of Time, with Cronus the ruling Titan and father of Zeus ect. That happens rather often, as they are spelled nearly the same and even share some traits and looks so that can happen! :)**

 **2\. It's just fine for me that you ''hate James Potter with passion" but don't brother telling me when I already said I like him and that I don't like Snape. I won't even tell you why James Potter is a better person than Snape.**

 **I never** **said everyone's mind was modified, just the ones of people who were close to or in daily contact with the "original" Harrison and would notice a difference in his behavior and personality. And I just wanted to write it this way, because it's my story. There exist plenty of stories with a Harry Evans if you want to read one of them :)**

 **3\. Thanks for that constructive criticism.**

 **4\. See number 3.**

 **5\. Thanks for your concern over one unrelevant detail, but no I didn't confuse Astronomy with Astrology. I simply used the first five letters of Astronomy, which, you might have noticed, are the same as in Astrology. So no confusion on my side :) But fun fact: Did you know that Astronomy and Astrology go hand in hand as Astrology is entirely based on Astronomy? Crazy isn't it?**

 **And now a little privat message: You don't seem to like my story very much then why bother to write a review? I don't have a problem with criticism, but you just wasted both of our time. You also confused some of the facts yourself, so you might want to try a little more friendlier way next time when you review a story. I thought about deleting your reviews, but then I decided to answer you. Should you decided to continue leaving reviews the same fashion as the ones you already left then I will delete them. So don't bother with wasting more of both our time. Goodbye, have a nice day**


	11. Morning Talks And Training

Morning Talks And Training

'Good Lord she is beautiful' Harry thought once he opened his eyes and came to realize that he wasn't alone in bed. There next to him laid Minerva, still fully clothed as himself, but she had freed her hair from her bun and her outer robes laid on his couch and both their shoes and socks were also somewhere in his living room. Her hair now framed her beautiful face and the autumn sun shone into his bedroom and enlightened their features. Reluctantly turning away from her he laid on his back and looked at his left where his clock stood. It was already eleven.

But it didn't surprise him it was already this late, they had spend most of the night talking about his life, who he was and had become, as well as almost everything he had done in his original time. Having somebody who knew everything about him was strangely satisfying, it was like Harry himself was reminded who he was.

They had also talked a lot about Minerva as it hadn't been Harry who was on the Quidditch team with her and Harry also wanted to get to know Minerva even better. Around four they both had been so tired that it hadn't taken much to convince Minerva to stay.

"Good Morning." a sleepy voice pulled him out of his thoughts and Harry turned his head again to look at the witch he loved.

"Good Morning my dear." Harry answered, his own voice still heavy with sleep, he rolled over so they were facing each other and laid his arm around her. Minerva moved even closer to him and laid her lips on his. Instantly Harry responded and kissed her back, while his arm pressed her against him and his other also sneaked under Minerva's body so he could pull her on top of him, Minerva's right laid on the side of his neck, her fingers buried in his hair while her left laid on his chest. The kiss grew more fierce with each second, his tongue had already stole its way inside her mouth where she had welcomed him with a battle for the upper hand.

After a couple of moments they both pulled back reluctantly to breathe properly again. Harry slid one hand that had laid on her hip back up her back to stroke her hair back behind her ear.

"Merlin I could do this every second for the rest of my life." he said and smiled at her, Minerva smiled back and pecked his lips once more.

"Me too, but I think our students, particularly the younger ones, would be quite disturbed seeing their Professors snogging their brains out." she replied and he laughed shortly.

"Oh they should be happy their Professors are only snogging, there are quite a few things we could disturb them with even more."

"Are you only thinking about sex?" she asked but wasn't able to keep her own smile off her lips.

"When I wake up beside a beautiful witch who is also right on top of me? Of course I think about sex, after all sex is a wonderful thing."

"Quite true."

"How did you sleep?" Harry asked changing the subject, he didn't want to imply he wanted to have sex with her just now, they had after all just found back together. He wanted them both to be ready and until then he could just continue to get relief by himself.

"Very good, thank you, and you?" Minerva said and laid back down beside Harry, but still very close.

"Wonderful, there is nothing better than waking up next to someone you're head over heels in love with."

"Good for you then that this witch feels the same way about you, or it wouldn't happen so often." Minerva replied grinning and Harry kissed her once more.

"Oh I'm the luckiest lad in the world right now." Harry murmured against her lips and placed a last kiss on her delicate lips before he pulled back. "Do you have anything to do today? Or somewhere you need to be?" he asked and watched as she thought about his words.

"Not really, why are you asking?"

"Well, then let's spend the weekend together, just the two of us here. Like we planned to do before I fucked up. And well, I began training James, Lily, Sirius, Remus and Marlene, today is the next training, I could use a little help in training them. If you need a more conviction then I can tell you it's pretty funny to chase them around the training room." Harry said and wiggled his eyebrows at her, Minerva laughed and laid her hands on his chest before placing her head on her hands looking at him.

"I'd love to spend the weekend with you and a little help training them probably won't harm them." Minerva said and smiled.

"Great, then I will go and take a shower now and then I'll make us some breakfast." Harry said and kissed her.

"We can also just ask the house elves to make us some-" Minerva replied but Harry threw her an almost offended look, "or you make us something."

"You never tried my breakfast, sure the house elves can cook very good and I enjoy it, but there is nothing better than something you cooked yourself."

"Talking about keeping the expectations low." she teased and Harry send her a mocked glare.

"You will apologies later that you ever doubted me." with that he disappeared in the bathroom and took a quick shower, it was a wonder Minerva had slept next to him as he hadn't taken a shower after his training and smelled awful. It was only when he had finished his shower he realized, a little too late, that he hadn't taken any clothes with him, or his wand. Hopefully walking back inside only with a towel around his hips wouldn't create an awkward situation.

When he stepped inside she was standing by the bookshelf looking over the books he owned, her hair up in a messy bun. When she turned around her eyes widened surprised and Harry couldn't help but notice how her eyes wandered over his naked torso, he knew he was well build, but her glance was a quite boost for his ego.

"I forgot my fresh clothes." he admitted.

"Oh I'm-I'm waiting in the kitchen for you." Minerva said a faint blush covering her cheeks as she walked out of the room, he wasn't the first man she saw naked, or half naked but he was the most handsome one. Once he had put on some Shirt and pants he walked into the kitchen and saw Minerva rummaging through his cupboards.

"What are you doing? I said I would make us some breakfast." Harry had been so quiet that he startled her a little when he talked.

"Yes I know I'm just searching for some tea, because while you know something about cooking I know something about making tea." Minerva said and Harry smiled before he reached over her to the highest shelf in his cupboard and handed her the slightly dusty box of tea. She blinked at him and gave him a look of pure disbelieve.

"Really?"

"Well, though I like tea, I'm kinda a coffee drinker." he confessed and she shook his head at him, he really had only drank some tea at meals if she had offered it to him.

"Then my dear you never had good tea, you will apologies later that you ever doubted me." she said using his words and Harry leaned down to peck her lips.

"I can't wait for it." he then began to make them breakfast containing their favourite things, making a few different things but small portions. Harry had of course, as they had been eating together for months now, memorized what she liked best. Soon they sat at his little table which they had moved towards one of the windows in the living room so there was a more comfortable atmosphere while enjoying their breakfast.

"And?" Harry couldn't keep himself from asking after Minerva had finished half of her porridge, sipping his tea which was he had to admit delicious, he had never learned to make proper tea and had therefore switched to coffee.

"You can definitely cook, it's delicious, we better don't tell the house elves or they'll be devastated," she said smiling and then nodded towards his mug, "how's your tea?"

"I never had better tea in my life, I think it still might be possible for me to switch to tea."

"Glad to hear that." with that they continued their breakfast talking about everything that came to their minds, until there was a swoosh sound behind Harry and in the next moment a soot covered Astronomy Professor stood in front of his fireplace.

"Didn't your mother teach you to not simply floo into other peoples houses astro fraud?" Harry asked.

"I fucking hate floo powder." Auror simply replied coughing, ignoring his words and then looked at him, noticing her best friend sitting opposite of Harry. "Not that I didn't suspect it, but at least now I can save us the question if you have seen Minerva," she said and stepped closer to the two. "Thanks for leaving a note were you are, I was worried young Lady." Minerva arched an eyebrow at her best friend and shook her head.

"Aurora." the 'save that attitude for someone else' tone of Minerva made her best friend sigh.

"Alright, alright, well seems like you two sorted out what ever it was that made you break up?" the Astronomy Professor said and waved a hand between the two.

"Good Morning Harry may I come in? Good Morning Aurora, of course, please sit down and feel free to ask about any sensible themes that might come to your mind." Harry said with an unmoving face but Aurora only shook her head at him.

"Really Minerva? Him?"

"Oh shut up."

"With pleasure, but jokes aside. Are you two okay again? Because it _really_ was a shitty time not only for you. You are my best friend Minerva and as much as I hate to admit it, and I'll never say it again, I like you Harry and seeing you two unhappy wasn't great, so please, can this be the last time you two break up?" Harry wasn't sure who was more surprised at the honest and kind words of the normally kinda gruff Aurora, Minerva or Harry himself.

"Yes, we talked about it and worked it out, didn't we?" Harry asked and looked at Minerva who smiled and took his hand.

"Yes we did." she answered and smiled back.

"By the way, I like you too Aurora. Even though you can be a pain in the arse and drive me mad, you're a good friend." Harry said and both of them smiled at each other.

"This will be the only time you two admit that you actually like each other am I right?" Minerva asked already knowing the answer when both nodded at her.

"Maybe we'll do it once a year, on your birthday or Christmas," with that Aurora stood up "alright, that was all I wanted to hear. Well I'll leave you and shitty glasses back to where you were Minerva. We'll see each other tomorrow?" Aurora asked and Minerva nodded before the two of them shared a hug. With a pat on Harry's shoulder she walked back to the fireplace, Harry noticed out of the corner of his eyes how Aurora dragged her cloak alongside the back of his couch leaving a long soot trail behind before stepping inside the fireplace again.

"Oh by the way, you just made me fifty Galleons richer as I won against Albus, so thanks for that! Bye bye!" before either of the two could say or do anything she was already gone.

"I knew it, they were all betting on our private life, can you believe that?" Minerva said with a mix between annoyance and amusement.

"Well, you gotta see it the other way, we are the only people in this castle interesting enough to bet on. But I agree with you, we really have to find them some other hobby." they continued their breakfast talking about nothing particular, but once they had cleaned away the dishes and sat on his couch, his arms loosely wrapped around her and quiet music coming from the wireless, Minerva got more serious.

"How are you feeling? Telling me everything couldn't have been easy." she said and Harry thought about her words. It hadn't been easy to remember all the good things that had happened and all the great people he had met, especially talking about Ron and Hermione had left him choked up a couple of times. But apart from that it had felt so good and to share the memories of his dearest friends was like bringing them to this time, making them more real again. Now that Minerva knew of them they weren't just living in his memory.

"It wasn't easy, I admit that, but it was good telling you, not just so you know who I really am. It's nice to know that somebody now knows about what happened and about my friends, so they are not just existing in my memories." Harry told her calmly as his hands slowly stroked up and down her forearms.

"That's good, they do sound like amazing people...I can't wait to meet them."

"Oh if they are anything like we were in my time, then they will give you nearly a heart attack at least once a school year...and beyond." he said with a smile on his lips.

"Thanks for the heads up."

"Your welcome." Harry murmured before he placed a kiss on her hairline.

"Did you really mean what you said about your parents yesterday? Please be honest." this was unexpected and Harry had slightly hoped she wouldn't bring it up because he had spoken without thinking first. He hadn't lied to her like he had promised but he had thought he was okay with it until he had said it out loud.

"Harry?" Minerva asked carefully and turned her head to look at him, Harry sighed.

"No," he answered quietly "but I didn't lie to you I swear. I-I really thought I could do it, but when I said it, I realized that I have been lying to myself. Merlin I want to save them, if only to spare my self seven years of living in cupboard. But in doing so I might put the lives of thousands of people in danger. I don't know what the fuck I can do, those bastards didn't tell me how this works, what is okay for me to change and what not? It's so frustrating." Harry said not able to keep the negative emotions out of his voice.

"Harry look at me. We will figure it out, together. We will find a way to save them, I will help you with all I have. You- well, the future you, deserves to be happy." Minerva said and Harry, who had followed her plea to look her in the eyes, could see that she really meant what she said.

"I love you Minerva...you- don't know what it means to me that you will help me."

"I love you too Harry, all of you." she craned her neck to place a kiss on his lips and Harry all too willingly let her. How did he deserve this amazing woman?

* * *

They spend the rest of the day simply enjoying each others company again, they went for a long walk around the lake and the land surrounding the school, carefully watching out that no students could see them. Upon their return to his quarters around dinner time, they ate something and decided to play some Chess, each round ended with Harry loosing big time.

"Damn it." Harry cursed as Minerva checkmated him for the third time in a row, causing his opponent to chuckle. She was even better than Ron, and that was saying something.

"No wonder you choose that bloody chessboard in my first year at Hogwarts." he grumbled as he shooed his still partly demolished pieces back into their box.

"What?" Minerva asked still smiling as she also guided her celebrating pieces back inside the box.

"Well in my first year Albus hide the philosopher's stone in Hogwarts and you teachers protected it with traps and tasks, you choose a giant chess game one had to win to pass. However the pieces, especially that Queen of yours was quite violent, she nearly broke Ron's skull." he told her and Minerva blinked at him.

"What? But- in your first year? What were you even doing there?" as he hadn't told every detail to every adventure yesterday, and to be honest Harry had many adventures, Minerva was understandably surprised. So he then told her the whole story of how they had found out about the stone and set out to defend it, by the end she was shaking her head in disbelieve.

"Please, if this should happen in the future, remind me to believe you. Do you know how many times you three could have died?!" she asked him Harry scratched the back of his head.

"Well, there was the Cerberus, the Devils Snare, we could've technically fallen off our brooms and be beaten to death by aggressive keys, then we have your Chess game that nearly succeeded in murdering Ron, the Mountain Troll which was already dead when we got there and then Voldemort acting through Quirrell." Harry listed and counted each possible death scenario with his fingers.

"Merlin," she buried her face in her hands for a moment "how come you are still alive?"

"I used to asked this myself once a month. I guess having no idea how deathly the stuff was that we were doing and no normal sense for dangerous situations was helping. And plenty of dump luck." he joked and Minerva threw a pillow at his head.

"Don't joke about that!"

"Hey, I'm here aren't I?"

"Forced to travel back in the past and nearly getting killed once again." she said and Harry couldn't help but agree with her.

"Good point." he then stood up walked around the table and pulled her into his arms and kissed her "I'm still here though and I think that it probably won't be the last time we both put our lives at risk." he said once they parted.

"I know, doesn't mean I like it." Minerva said before giving him another kiss. Harry then looked at his watch and saw that it was almost time for the training.

"Hey it's time for the training, ready to chase some students around?" he asked grinning.

"Oh, with pleasure. I can't wait to see the Room of Requirement." she replied smiling and together they walked to the Room of Requirement. Once arriving in the corridor he thought about their training room and when the door appeared out of the stone and they stepped inside Minerva was really impressed.

"I love this castle." she murmured when she looked around the room.

"You haven't seen the best yet." Harry told her before he lead her over to the door leading to the small forest. When he opened the door a small gasp escaped Minerva.

"Oh my...this room is really amazing."

"Yes indeed. We will train in here today, they've been here a couple of times to complete a small parkour so they should know their way around. We'll simulate an attack on them and they have to defend themselves." Harry explained his plan to her and Minerva nodded.

"Alright, do you mind if I get a little familiar with this room as well?" she asked and Harry shook his head.

"No of course not, I will begin in the other room and then we'll just meet you in here as little surprise." Harry said and Minerva nodded.

"Alright, see you in a few minutes then," with that Minerva turned around but Harry quickly wrapped her in a strong hug. "Harry wha- ?" but he already turned her in his arms and kissed her.

"I cannot do this for the next two hours or so, I just had to kiss you." Harry whispered against her lips before Minerva kiss him again.

"I love you." she said and Harry smiled his heart beating faster in his chest upon hearing her say these three simple words.

"I love you too," just then they heard a door open and voices in the other room. "that's my cue, see you in a bit."

"I can hardly wait." with that she disappeared between the trees while Harry walked back inside the other room where James, Sirius, Lily, Marlene and Remus were waiting for him.

"Good evening everyone," he said with a smile and the five students greeted him back. "you now how it works by now, warm up and practice your spells." Together they warmed up and practice their spells with Harry, they changed partners every few minutes until Harry though they were ready.

"So, today we are going to take things a bit further, we will simulate a fight and you have to defend yourselves until you either defeat both of us or until you are all unconscious. Obviously we won't use spells that can he lethal, directly on each other, so for example, casting a Confringo directly at us will cause you to be knocked out and earning yourself fifteen rounds around the room for breaking the rules. But therefore it is alright to cast Confringo on a tree for example to draw the attention of your opponent away from you. Understood?" Harry explained to them and all off them nodded, then Remus lifted his hand. "Yes?"

"The way you said 'we' tells me you won't be alone. Who is our other opponent?" he asked and Harry grinned, turning around he walked to wards the door of the forest and gestured the five to follow him.

"I'm sure you will be pleased with my choice of partner for this." with that he opened the door and they saw Minerva first standing with her back towards them, when the door opened she tuned around with a smile and waved at them.

"Hello." all five of them were surprised to see her there, they had expected some former Auror colleague of Harry's.

"Professor McGonagall?" Sirius asked as the first to find his voice again, there was honest surprise in his voice, though Harry thought he might have picked up a little bit of worry too and he couldn't blame Sirius, he had seen Minerva fight after all and she wasn't called the most powerful witch of her time for nothing. It seemed like he wasn't the only one who picked up on that.

"Why so surprised Mr. Black? Surely you are not scared of a little training fight with your Professor? To make things easier you can call me Minerva, of course only here."

"Actually-"

"Shut up Sirius, we can do this!" James said confidently but his friends weren't so sure about that.

"They will kick our arses." mumbled Marlene and Lily nodded.

"Alright, Minerva and I will go now and meet you at the clearing, once you arrive you have one minute to prepare before the fight starts. Good Luck." With that he and Minerva pulled their wands and disappeared between the trees.

"Alright, so obviously no lethal curses but I guess I don't have to tell you." Harry said as they arrived at the clearing after a quick jog there.

"Of course not, I'll take the right side, have fun." Minerva said and with a peck to his cheek she left for the opposite side of the clearing. Harry disillusioned himself and knelt in a particularly dark spot between some trees and bushes. They didn't have to wait long until the friends arrived and stood with their backs to each other wands raised, silently counting down Harry watched as they developed a strategy. Marlene and Lily, who were the best at protecting spells, stood back to back while Remus, Sirius and James surrounded them, it was the job of the two witches to shield the others as best as possible.

With his first curse on his lips Harry counted the last ten seconds, and just when the time was up something surprising happened.

"Harry's in the bushes on the left and Minerva is to my right over there!" Remus bellowed and he and Marlene send spells in Minerva's direction, while James, Sirius and Lily send curses at him. Kinda surprised Harry had to dodge two of them before be jumped behind the nearby tree and fired back.

If it weren't for Lily one his stunners would have hit Sirius square in the chest as he and James nearly collied while evading his spells, they only managed not to collied because James jumped and rolled himself over Sirius back, who had dodged a spell.

Harry then walked onto the clearing, lifting the charm off him and tried to show them how to fight and defend oneself at the same time, at a situation like this the key was to always keep moving around. Though he wasn't hidden anymore, none of them managed to get a good hit, only a Diffindo cast by Lily graze his left side and left him with cut there.

Surprisingly the first one to get knocked out was Remus, as he relied too much on his enhanced sense of smell he turned his attention on a bush Minerva had transfigured to a cloaked person with her scent on it and before Remus realized what happened he was knocked back by a powerful stunner.

Without hesitation Marlene took his place, leaving Lily alone in the middle, who threw shield charm over shield charm saving her friends quite often, as the others stood in a circle around her. Only when Remus was knocked out Minerva also appeared on the clearing and despite the situation Harry couldn't help but watch her and be amazed by the way she moved.

It almost looked like she was dancing throwing curses and hexes at their students, her hair had come loose from her loose bun and was whirling around her, but it didn't seem to affect her at all. If she had her wand with her on that fateful night she nearly died, than Harry was sure she also would have been able to stand her ground against the Death Eaters.

Next one to go was James, who got hit with an Impedimenta which was quickly followed by a Incarcerous spell leaving him tied up on the ground, because he tried to impress Lily with a spectacular jump, jumping directly into the first spell which would have missed him otherwise. Once the Impedimenta wore off he began to shout warnings at the others, but then Minerva put a Silencio on him leaving him wiggling on the grass without a sound.

Lily followed not long after James, not able to doge a stunner from Minerva as she spun around to put up a shield between Marlene and Harry's Silencio.

"Ossox!" Harry's bone breaking curse hit Sirius in his right leg, causing him to fall to the floor with a scream of pain, to end this Harry quickly send a stunner after him, leaving him unconscious.

"Oh Fuck!" Marlene cursed realizing she was the only one left, but not for long. While she managed to doge and shield their curses for a moment, she was hit by a Silencio and though she was able to bring up a shield, it wasn't strong enough to withstand Minervas stunner and Harry's Incarcerous.

As both Harry and Minerva walked to the middle of the clearing on which their unconscious students laid, Harry proceeded to heal his cut and look at his students. The fight had lasted over fifteen minutes, surely longer than Harry had expected and he was very proud of them.

"They fought pretty well, you were a good teacher," Minerva said and then looked at her left hand, Harry noticed that it was all red and swollen, "Remus actually got me with a Stinging hex." she said, rolling up her sleeve before pointing her wand at her hand. A clear paste spread over the skin on her hand and then she conjured a bandage which wrapped around her hand and each of her fingers.

"Yeah, I'm pretty proud of them, let's wake them up." Harry banished the ropes around James away and ended the his silencing charm. His father sat up and rubbed his arms glaring at his teacher.

"We'll talk once everyone is up again." Harry quickly told him before James could say something.

"Alright." Harry then went over to Sirius whose bone he healed with a quickly cast Episkey before lifting the Stunner off him.

"Merlins old saggy balls that hurt!" his fathers best friend said once he regained consciousness and rubbed his right leg before taking the hand Harry offered who then pulled Sirius on his feet.

They walked over to the others were Minerva had already conjured some chairs for them and Harry summoned some water bottles handing one to each of them.

"Who won?" Sirius then asked once they sat down and had some water.

"Marlene did. Congrats you won yourself a bottle of Fire Whisky you will get when we are finished." he said and Marlene grinned.

"Yes! Sweet!" she said and shared a high five with Lily.

"So do you all know why we could defeat you?"

"Because you two are highly experienced Professors who are ten times stronger than we are? I mean seriously-"

"Seriously Sirius?" James interrupted his best friend and it took Harry a great deal not to crack a grin.

"Oh shut the hell up, I lasted longer than you, you son of a Murtlap. What I wanted to say was, you two are probably the most powerful witch and wizard apart from Dumbledore and Snakeface, we didn't stand a chance."

"Thanks for the compliment Sirius and you are right, but don't belittle what you have done, you lasted longer against us then we expected. Remus and Lily both managed to hit us with curses," here Minerva held up her bandaged hand, "you came up with a good strategy, using Remus' abilities to locate us, which gave you an advantage. You had each others back's and with Lily and Marlene in the middle to cast shields you lasted even longer." Minerva explained to them and the five smiled at her.

"So back to my question." Harry said and the five thought about it.

"I relied too much on my sense of smell, though I do not understand how you managed to make that transfigured bush actually smell like you Professor." Remus began.

"Yes, that's right you did, but I was only able to do so because I know of your condition, if I didn't know why you knew where we were I wouldn't have bothered with that detail, which is really complicated. I came up with it when I mastered my Animagus form and could sometimes use my feline senses even as a human. Maybe I can teach you." Minerva answered and Remus nodded smiling.

"Well I simply panicked, I didn't expect being the last survivor and got nervous, so I wasn't concentrating enough." Marlene said and Harry nodded.

"That's right, but we can work on that, apart from that you did great. Both you and Lily saved the others a dozen times with your shield charms." Harry told her and then looked at James who rubbed the back of his neck quite embarrassed. Right in that moment James reminded Minerva a lot of Harry who also did this in the same manner as James, ' _like father like son'_ she thought with a small smile on her lips.

"I- well, I was trying to show off and fucked up because I didn't concentrate enough on what I was actually doing." he admitted and Harry also nodded.

"Quite right, but that is luckily also something we can work on rather easily. If you hadn't tried to show off, I'm pretty sure you would have lasted a great deal longer." Harry told him and James nodded feeling a little bit better at the praise he got from his presumed cousin.

"Sirius what about you?" Minerva asked turning to look at the young man she addressed.

"Well, because I got hit by that damn bone breaker curse."

"Right, but you only got hit because you weren't moving anymore, you relied too much on Lily and Marlene. If you work on that you will be an excellent duellist." she told him and Sirius grinned pleased.

"I got hit by that stunner because I focused more on protecting Marlene, I should have used that Protego on the stunner from Minerva."

"Exactly, you did great as I already told Marlene, but you focused more on the others than on yourself, you have to find the right balance, Marlene is able to cast spells non-verbal and could have continued without speaking. All in all I'm really proud of you, I think if we did this at the beginning of our training, even with only myself to fight against, you wouldn't have lasted that long."

After the five friends had recovered a little more they began to train again. Minerva began to teach Remus and James, who were the most gifted in Transfiguration, how to add scent to transfigured objects. Harry on the other hand helped the other three to improve their duelling even more. Sirius ended up with a special task, as he had to dodge the Leek Jinx that the other three, who surrounded him, cast at him without having his wand to put up a shield charm.

* * *

When Harry ended the training an hour later, all five of them were pretty tired and there was still a small leek sprouting from Sirius right ear, which seemed to grow back every time he pulled it out.

"Alright, that's it we're finished for tonight, don't forget your homework which is due on Monday. The next training will be on Wednesday." with that the five friends left, Marlene hiding a small bottle of Fire Whisky under her cloak, while Sirius complained that his ears would smell like leek for the whole week.

"That went better than I thought." Harry said as they slowly walked out of the forest room as well.

"It did, and it was quite fun. Do you mind if I help you more often?" Minerva asked as they came to a halt before the door leading outside the Room of Requirement.

"Of course not, you've been amazing Mina, really I knew you could fight, but that was incredible." Harry said as he slide his arms around her waist and leaned down to kiss her.

"Thank you, you weren't bad yourself." she whispered against his lips before kissing him once more, her own arms folding behind his neck pulling him close to her.

"Let's go by to my quarters again, or yours," Harry said once they pulled back to breath properly again "I don't care, just as long as we're alone."

"Do you fancy another game of Chess?" Minerva couldn't help but ask with a mischievous smile on her lips and Harry put on a mocked a hurt expression and flinched.

"Ouch, was that really necessary?" he asked and the witch in arms chuckled.

"Yes it was."

"That screams for a proper make up I think." Harry said innocently and Minerva pulled him in for another kiss, this kiss quickly grew into a proper snogging session, that left both of them quite aroused.

"Are we even now?" Minerva asked panting slightly, her lips swollen from their kiss.

"For now." Harry said brushing his lips against the tip of her nose in a brief kiss

"I love you." Minerva said and it was still music to his ears to hear her say it.

"I love you too." Harry said and together they left the room hand in hand. It was late enough so that only a few students were on the corridors and it was no problem for them to show this much affection.

Just when they arrived back in his quarters and Harry opened his mouth to ask her if she wanted something to drink, two bright blue Phoenix Patronuses landed in front of them, each of them had the same message for him and Minerva and what Albus' voice told them, echoed around his Quarters, left them both shocked.

' _There is an emergency, Death Eaters are attacking the Bones Family, we need your help!'_

* * *

 **Hello there!**

 **Another very late Christmas present, hope you all had a wonderful time and also very late happy New Year!**

 **I hope you really enjoyed the new chapter, I really thought it would take longer but the muse was hitting hard again! Please let me know what you think of it :)**

 **I never trained anyone for fighting, certainly no wizards so I hope this turned out not so bad.**

 **Thank you for all the reviews, favourites and follows, it never fails to amaze me when I look at all the people who read my stories, thank you so much!**

 **Patti**


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